Plans afoot to involve SMEs in public procurement

By Jackson Okoth

Guidelines to enable small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) participate in public procurement are on the way.

"We need to promote local firms as is the case in South Africa, where government has brought local firms on board in its procurement policy," said Finance Assistant Minister Dr Oburu Odinga. Oburu made the remarks yesterday while opening the Second East African Procurement Forum, at the Hilton Hotel.

The conference, which attracted participants from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan, takes place at a time when local companies remain cut off from the public procurement process, still dominated by foreigners.

Access to credit

"We are working on a bidders manual that will enable SMEs participate in public procurement," said Morris Juma, Interim Director General, Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA).

The conference heard that SMEs face challenges of accessing credit as well as lack of adequate knowledge on how to place bids.

Efforts to open up public procurement come as local road contractors have raised concerns over competition posed by foreign firms in various road contractors and other infrastructural projects.

Juma said they were currently training Constituency Development Fund (CDF) accounting officers to fully comply with the public procurement act.

There has been an increase in funds under CDF, creating the need for good procurement practices.

Following the enactment of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act in 2007, public procurement has undergone a series of reforms to make the system more transparent.