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NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

CS Mucheru now wants control of all State ICT purchases

Business

By Frankline Sunday | May 22, 2018

NAIROBI, KENYA: The ICT Ministry will in the next two months take over the procurement of all ICT equipment for Government ministries and agencies.

ICT Cabinet Secretary Joseph Mucheru said on Monday the Government would centralise procurement of all its ICT equipment beginning the next financial year in a bid to create uniformity.

Right tools

“The first mandate we have is in creating an efficient Government where we have the right tools and infrastructure in place and one of the first directives is that all ICT procurement goes through the Ministry of ICT,” said Mr Mucheru when he met business leaders from the technology sector in Nairobi.

“From printers to laptops, everything that is ICT-related will go through the ministry of ICT.”

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This will see billions of shillings in procurement budgets move to the ICT Authority housed under the ICT Ministry.

In the current financial year, for example, the National Treasury was allocated Sh948 million for procuring ICT services, with this figure set to double to Sh2 billion in the next financial year.

The National Land Commission (NLC), on the other hand, was allocated Sh351 million for an information management system while the Devolution Ministry received Sh25 billion for procuring ICT goods and services.

The ICT Ministry will take charge of these budgets in the next financial year, making decisions about the type of equipment, standards and vendors to supply it.

“It is not even clear how much toner we use,” said Mr Mucheru. “We want to make sure that by the new financial year that starts in July, we centralise all procurement.”

Most influential

In addition to the Sh20 billion annual budget allocated to the ICT Ministry, and if the directive is extended to the county governments, this would make the ministry the most influential in the Government.

The CS said the plan would also see local service providers and vendors invited to bid competitively.

“It will be easier for you to interact with the Government to provide your services competitively and at scale and we will ensure it has local content as well.”