New e-procurement system is a powerful weapon against graft

There is anger about the recently launched e-government procurement system. While proponents of the system have hailed it as the most brilliant governance tool since man went to the moon, others have said they cannot trust a “computer” to do procurement for them. They have insisted that they must retain their good, old tendering committees.

But just what is e-procurement? Electronic Government Procurement (E-GP) is a virtual governance tool designed to automate the procurement process in government. The E-GP system is widely considered as world best practice for public financial management systems. Some of the countries that have embraced it include Chile, South Korea and India.

It is notable that we witnessed a rapid upward swing in revenue collection in instances when we have had limited or no human interaction with revenue collection. Similar gains might be achieved with the E-GP.

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To weed out corruption that has been synonymous with government procurement, automation is a step in the right direction that cannot be fought by legalese about counties autonomy and political grandiloquence.

Corruption remains a festering crisis in Kenya. Two decades ago, governance experts and independent commentators suggested that at least a quarter of our budget was going to corruption. Government procurement has been a haven for malfeasance; from inflation of cost before awarding the tender to what for a long time we called “the cowboy contractors” to simply paying for work not done and/or services not rendered. I suspect this is why there are loud whispers against this new system.

Kenya has many good people. Majority, if not all Kenyans, want the country to succeed. We therefore must not be consumed by politics of demonisation; of opposing every suggestion that comes from people we do not agree with. In the case of e-GP, conservative estimates suggest that it will help us save up to Sh85.9 billion a year. I would have gone into the mathematics of what we can do with such an amount of money but let me just say that almost 10 counties would fully fund their budgets for a year.

A reading of the Constitution and the Public Procurement and Disposal Act 2015 envisages that public procurement will be guided by the values of transparency, accountability, efficiency, inclusivity and oversight. The digital aspect of the e-GP when fully rolled out will help achieve these values.

While teaching us Procurement Law, Okech Owiti of University of Nairobi said phantom companies were the special purpose vehicles of grand corruption in government. He liked the acronym FFBS which means Fictitious Vendors, Fake invoices, Bid rigging and Shell companies. I think e-GP will make it easy to identify not only the perpetrators of corruption but also their abettors.

My optimism is predicated on the ease of trace of the procurement process for this system that seeks to integrate the iTax system with Business Registration Services systems together with Ifmis. This will close the company registration systems where fake directors and/or proxies are used to hide real identities of the real beneficiaries.

Further and significantly, this will help to deal a death blow to concealment and layering, the primary tactics used by the corrupt to keep the proceeds of their evil acts from the reach of law enforcement.

I know there are challenges around our internet connectivity and internet penetration is projected to be at 48 per cent, which translates to around 27.4 million users. This, in my view, will be a great incentive for the government to close the digital divide. Other legitimate concerns raised by stakeholders like governors and MPs should help us refine this system and implement it. Anyone who supports the anti-corruption crusade in public procurement cannot fail to support the implementation of the e–GP.

Mr Kidi is the convener of the Inter-Parties Youth Forum. [email protected] 

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