Kindiki, Mbadi Defend E-Procurement Amid Pushback from Counties and Agencies » Capital News

NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 28 – Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has thrown his weight behind the government’s ongoing reforms in financial management, insisting that the shift to e-procurement and the Treasury Single Account (TSA) are irreversible despite mounting concerns from counties and state agencies.

Speaking during a public forum on government financial reforms, Kindiki acknowledged that both county governments and national agencies are facing difficulties in adapting to the e-procurement system but ruled out any possibility of reverting to manual procurement.

“For the comfort of the Chair of the Council of Governors, it is not just county governments that are experiencing those challenges. Even national government agencies are experiencing the same challenges, including my office,” he stated.

“However, we must resolve those challenges and implement e-procurement because we will not reverse to the manual procurement system whatsoever.”

The Deputy President also defended the Treasury Single Account, which requires all government funds to be kept at the Central Bank of Kenya, saying it will stop the diversion of public money into commercial bank accounts.

“The Treasury Single Account is important because government resources must be kept at the central bank,” Kindiki stressed.

“Many agencies have been keeping money belonging to the people of Kenya in commercial banks, earning interest which is not accounted for. There is no retreat, no surrender, no amount of pushback will make us review that policy decision.

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi echoed Kindiki’s remarks, dismissing claims that Parliament had revoked e-procurement.

He argued that resistance to the system was driven by vested interests seeking to exploit loopholes in manual tendering.

“One of the contentions being pushed is that Parliament revoked e-procurement. That is not true,” Mbadi said.

“I have issued circulars on zero-based budgeting, on the Treasury Single Account, and on e-procurement. People only have a problem with e-procurement because they still want to manipulate procurement by plucking papers from tender documents. That is what we are not going to allow.”

Mbadi further stated that his mandate, endorsed during his vetting by Parliament, is to modernize public financial management systems.

He maintained that the Constitution explicitly gives the National Treasury the responsibility to design and oversee accounting and procurement systems for government.

The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) has issued a warning to all public sector accounting officers, cautioning them against disregarding the mandatory shift to the Electronic Government Procurement System (E-GPS).

In a circular signed by Director General Patrick Wanjuki, the authority noted that some procuring entities are still using the manual system, while others have been processing procurement records dated before the rollout.

The government, through a series of circulars from the Office of the President, the National Treasury, and PPRA, had set 1 July 2025 as the official rollout date for the end-to-end e-procurement system.