The Council of Governors (CoG) has vowed to challenge in court a directive by President William Ruto and Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi requiring counties to mandatorily adopt the Electronic Government Procurement (eGP) system.
CoG chairperson Ahmed Abdullahi, speaking on Citizen TV on Tuesday night, said repeated attempts to have Treasury withdraw the circular had failed, leaving the governors with no choice but to seek legal redress.
Abdullahi noted that the eGP system was piloted in Elgeyo Marakwet, Busia, and Makueni but failed to deliver as expected. He argued that despite the challenges experienced during the trial phase, the system was rolled out nationwide without addressing the gaps.
He added that governors are currently unable to procure essential goods and services because of the directive, warning that service delivery in counties has been paralysed. Had the rollout been managed properly, he said, counties would not be facing the current difficulties.
“As CoG, we are moving to court because we have asked the CS to withdraw the circular, and it hasn’t been withdrawn. We are frozen in every respect; we can’t procure. This has blocked service delivery. The e-procurement system was hurried and has disrupted service delivery,” he stated.
The CoG chairperson also accused the national government of unfairly portraying counties as wastage hubs, pointing out that corruption challenges are equally rampant at the national level.
Abdullahi stressed that while governors bear political responsibility for systems under their watch, they are not directly in charge of supply chain management.
“There is a bit of gaslighting in the Kenyan public against devolution. If procurement worked right in the national government and it were graft-free, we would not be having a crisis. Governors run bureaucracies, but the excuse used to impose these directives is wastage in counties, which is not always the case,” he said.
He added that the Public Procurement Act currently permits both manual and electronic procurement. Before making the eGP system mandatory, he argued, the law ought to have been amended to align with the directive.
Abdullahi urged the government to first ensure the system works effectively before compelling counties to adopt it.
Meanwhile, according to Mbadi, some counties, as well as ill-intentioned government officials within ministries, state departments, and agencies (MDAs), have been attempting to secretly reintroduce the manual procurement system despite the Treasury’s directive that all must migrate to the digital platform.
President William Ruto also, while speaking over the weekend, dared government officials opposed to the system to consider quitting his administration.
Police Lob Teargas as Protests Erupt in Nairobi CBD News Just In
