By Standard Reporter
Nairobi,Kenya; Five years after thePublic Procurement and Disposal Act came into effect, the country is still struggling to align its policies to conform to the law. It is a glaring anomaly that has continued to hamper progress in public procurement.
In his address to a session of the Governing Council of the UN-Habitat at the United Nations office in Gigiri yesterday, President Uhuru Kenyatta was emphatic about his pledge to empower the youth and women and give them equal access to economic and financial opportunities.
Unlimited access
It sounds right because the Government is anyone’s biggest trading partner. But Uhuru’s pledge will only flower if the youth are allowed unfettered access to participate in Kenya’s growth-a development that has been frustrated by unfriendly procurement laws. Various professional bodies, including the Kenya Institute of Supplies Management have called on the State to overhaul these public procurement laws to cut red tape and reduce spending on goods and services.
Despite these pleas, there is still a lot of inaction over issues to do with procurement.
That is why we welcome Uhuru’s pledge that his Government will amend the procurement law to allow young men and women to supply up to 30 per cent of all government contracts. At the risk of sounding pessimistic, we remind you of former President Mwai Kibaki’s directive to both the Attorney General and the Minister for Finance to remove the legal bottlenecks that hinder the youth from accessing Government contracts. Kibaki’s directive sailed away with the winds, but our sincere hope is that the new administration will not follow in the footsteps of the immediate former Government by issuing directives it has no intention of following.
Untapped potential
Things must proactively change, fast. The
Government must not shy away from implementing decisions that will benefit its people. Friendly procurement laws will open up Kenya’s huge growth potential and systematically improve the business environment and service provision. President Uhuru needs to erect a strong house to ensure that the government he is crafting does not become synonymous with scandal.
Even without going into debates over how much our porous procurement laws have contributed to corruption, it is important that laws guarding huge sums of taxpayers’ money be transparent.
An open system will eliminate the need for appeals from disgruntled parties and shorten the periods within which jobs and services are procured. Indeed, it does make perfect sense to extend the benefits of a smooth working procurement system to the youth who are the most active and productive segment of the country’s population.
The youth are not only our best resource, but also have great potential to generate wealth.
By duly factoring in the large revenue potential that would be readily available for years if our youthful population were supported with reasonable policies and laws, the country will surely be doing itself a great favour.
