Taxpayers risk losing billions as State bodies bypass tender laws
John Otini
PROCUREMENT: Tax payers risk losing billions of shillings in inflated tenders and non-existing goods due to non-compliance with procurement rules by State organs, the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) said yesterday.
PPRA said that out of 220 State corporations only 82 submitted their procurement reports for audit at the end of the last quarter of the 2018/19 financial year.
On the other hand, only four out of 22 ministries submitted their reports for audit for the period under review raising concerns over the value for money dispensed for procurement purposes.
High risk
“The low compliance and high risk scores show the possibility of a procuring entity failing to obtain value for money expended in procurement,” the PPRA said in a statement.
During the fourth quarter, only 132 procuring entities submitted various reports to the authority, out of which 17 were county government entities.
Out of the 47 counties, only 13 had submitted their procurement reports for audit with Kiambu and Taita Taveta counties scoring the lowest procurement scores of 44 and 33 per cent respectively. This means the residents of the two counties were exposed to a higher risk of losing money.
Kiambu county governor Ferdinand Waititu had been arrested and charged with theft of public resources through dubious award of contracts while his Taita Taveta counterpart Granton Samboja was impeached over misuse of public funds.
PPRA also accused the Attorney General’s office, Agricultural Finance Corporations and Agricultural Development Corporation of failing to comply with procurement regulations.
PPRA assigned the AG’s office a compliance rate of 35 per cent meaning it was the most risky State department.
A common problem with the entities assessed is failure to publicise contract awards on websites and notice boards and non-submission of mandatory reports on contract awards to the authority.
They also lacked planning and internal policies to guide decision making in procurement and asset disposals.
