All bark and no bite: A look at Uhuru’s often ignored e-tendering orders

Last Monday, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed the Health ministry to adopt a transparent online procurement system within 30 days in a move that is aimed at exposing the cartels running Afya House.

In the new directive, the ministry was tasked with developing a mechanism through which all procurement at the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa) will be done online. 

“This would enhance the highest level of public scrutiny at all units of public administration, and improve the management of public resources for public good,” said Mr Kenyatta, adding that the new procurement rule will also be considered in all of public service.

This isn’t the first time the president is issuing similar orders. 

Since 2015, however, his officers have openly defied two such directives. So pundits reckon that the latest order, coming amidst procurement malpractices at the Ministry and medical supplies agency, might just fall on deaf ears.

This is because history has shown that the president's officers have seemingly perfected the art of ignoring him, and his procurement digitisation orders.

In March 2015, and two years into his first term, he gave government officers a one-week ultimatum to have all government agencies adopt the e-procurement system of tenders in a bid to “reduce the chances of corruption.’

“I am reminding the state officials that they are left with one week and all those in charge of the government agencies will be held personally liable if they fail to adopt the e-procurement system,” Mr Kenyatta said at the time.

The aim was to make the tendering system open for public scrutiny so that everyone “can know how a tender was awarded.”

Procurement of goods constitute about 50 percent of the State's annual budget and this move was meant to “help instill confidence amongst taxpayers” that their money was being put to good use.

However, this was never fully adhered to, with the State officers calling his bluff. 

Another order

Three years later, in July 2018, President Kenyatta was back again, this time with an executive order on procurement of public goods, works and services by public entities.

In this new order, he declared that all government entities and public-owned institutions would publish tenders and awards.

The order No2 of 2018, signed by the Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua, was sent to all government employees, directing all public entities to “maintain and continuously update and publicise (through websites of public procuring entity, e-citizen, Public Procurement Regulatory Platforms, public notice boards, and/ or official government publications the details of their tenders”.

Once again, this was partially implemented, with most State agencies falling off and failing to not only update their websites, but also to populate the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) website of the same tenders. 

An analysis by the Nation of the Public Procurement Information Portal (PPIP), which came about following Executive order number 2 of 2018, shows that the last time any government agency updated its tender awards on the site was in October of 2018. 

This implies how casually State agencies and officers treat the president's orders on procurement. 

Interestingly, the only entry in 2020 by the National Commission For Science, Technology and Innovation is for a tender for air ticketing services that is “postdated” in its award, for September 9, 2010.

Hope

Fast forward to 2020's order directed at the embattled Ministry of Health directing it to “within 30 days come up with a transparent, open method and mechanism through which all tenders and procurement done by Kemsa are available online so we can see who has been awarded a tender, the value of the tender, what it was for and how it was evaluated.”

“We can also see who was finally awarded, and I think this level of transparency, and through the use of technology, will go a very long way towards ensuring we have the confidence of our people; and that those placed in institutions are able to manage resources of taxpayers plus our development partners,” he said. 

The jury is out on whether this latest directive will be implemented, but perhaps the third time is the charm.

Taxpayers will be waiting to see if this latest order will actually be followed through or quietly fizzle out, till another tendering scam hits a government agency.