The Deputy Chief of Staff, Eliud Owalo, has revealed that President William Ruto and the Head of Public Service, Felix Koskei, have launched a crackdown targeting officials who are unlawfully running government projects through their private companies.
Speaking during an interview with NTV on Thursday, September 11, Owalo confirmed that the president has affirmed that if a government official is found to be doing this, he will dismiss them, and legal action will be taken against them.
Owalo added that collusion between government officials and contractors after projects are awarded is a major factor behind the delays and stalling of government projects.
"Those in government who want to do business, get out in the private sector and do business from there because we will not allow conflict of interest where you are government but you are also doing business with the government at the same time, which is leading to stalling of some of these projects," Owalo said.
"The brief I have from the president and the head of Public Service is that if anybody in government is found to be involved in unlawfully accessing public funds courtesy of the positions they hold, they will be asked to step down, and subsequently they will face the full force of the law," he added.
Despite stiff opposition, the government will not backstep in launching new advanced strategies, including the digitization of government procurement, to weed out corrupt government officials, according to Owalo.
"I accepted that some of the pitfalls that we are facing in the delivery of government projects are because there are individuals in government who are conniving with these contractors, and this is why we are going to e-procurement, and you can see the cartels challenging back; they don't want to go to digital," Owalo said.
The announcement by Owalo comes a week after President Ruto dared leaders opposed to the new e-procurement system to resign from their positions.
Speaking in Siaya on Sunday, August 31, Ruto claimed that it would not be business as usual with officials resisting reforms such as the migration to the digital Electronic Government Procurement (eGP) system, since they cannot align with his agenda.
According to Ruto, some officials who are opposing the system have even gone to the extent of sponsoring media reports to discredit the system by linking it to inflated spending.
“On e-procurement, there are a lot of people who are used to mischievous conduct when it comes to procurement. We have said that we will have e-procurement so that we can know how much something was bought for and is being sold at,” Ruto stated.
“I know that there is resistance from e-procurement and accounting officers who do not want that. That is why they are sponsoring headlines of how Mbadi spent billions in a non-working system. We will not be distracted by your noise, and I want to ask any official who is not willing to work with us to bolt out of government and go look for another job,” he added.
