Greed and corruption in State agencies is hampering uptake of the 30 per cent public procurement quota set for youth, women and Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) with a paltry six per cent of an estimated Sh500 billion allocated to the programme by Treasury going the groups.
Businesswomen in Kenya now want the government to bring to book, agencies that have not adhered to the rule, further claiming that cartels stand in the way of the programme.
The Public Procurement Oversight Authority, however, recently charged that the special groups are not requesting for funds because most of them lack the requisite application knowledge.
But yesterday, the women under the Kenya Association of Women Business Owners (Kawbo), attributed the perceived slow uptake of the funds to corruption between government agencies and cartels while some companies enjoy the procurement monopoly at the expense of 55,000 such business entities registered within the programme.
They also complained of challenges in accessing data to analyse and ascertain how many companies have accessed the public jobs. “We think the government is doing less than six per cent through talking to people who have accessed the business grants in the last two years.
We get repeated allocations to the same companies every time. Cartels do not want this programme to succeed and the resistance is related to corruption,” said Kawbo board member Marilyn Kamuru.
Speaking at a media conference ahead of the Vital Voices Supporting Public Advocacy for Regional Competitiveness, the women called on the Jubilee government to keep its word on ensuring the procurement law is implemented to the letter.
“We want President Uhuru Kenyatta to review the 30 per cent procurement data on a quarterly basis as he has done with the Public Procurement Disposal Regulations on the 40 per cent local content to be procured by international companies undertaking projects in Kenya in the supply and infrastructure sectors,” Kamuru added.
The Public Procurement Disposal Regulation of 2013 compels all international suppliers and contractors to source 40 per cent of the tender requirement from local firms. Kawbo said there is need to grow and excel women businesses in Kenya through the uptake of government tenders.
“The introduction of the Public Procurement and Disposal (Preference and reservations) Regulations in 2011 undoubtedly marked a critical shift in the manner in which government procures goods, services and works,” said Kawbo chairperson Eva Muraya.
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