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{
    "id": 1000961,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1000961/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 194,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Amb. Ukur Yatani",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary, National Treasury and Planning",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Since enactment, the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015, has been operating without the supporting regulations. However, I am pleased to report that the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Regulations, 2020 have been published and are awaiting Parliamentary approval. These Regulations seek to enhance uniformity of operations across procuring entities and promote the local economy through affirmative interventions on preferences and reservations. On e-procurement, the Government has finalised the e-Government Procurement Strategy. According to the Strategy, the Government will procure and roll out an end to end e-procurement system by end of December 2020. Under the e-procurement system, all procurement processes will be undertaken on an online platform where benefits will accrue to the Government procuring entities in terms of cost reduction, speed, transparency, accountability and visibility. In order to ensure the growth and sustainability of enterprises owned by women, youth and persons living with disabilities, the National Treasury has reengineered the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) portal to enable real-time registration and transparent monitoring of the implementation of the scheme. The system has also been linked to other Government institutions including the Kenya Revenue Authority, National Council for Persons with Disability, Registrar of Companies and IFMIS to facilitate faster verification and reporting. In addition, the National Treasury has directed all procuring entities to ensure prompt payment for all contracts performed by these target groups. Hon. Speaker, allow me to focus my attention on the construction industry, where I believe we can create the much-needed jobs for the youth by hiring local contractors. The Government is aware that local contractors, in general, have had challenges of undertaking infrastructure construction projects due to limited technical, financial and managerial capacity. This has resulted in participation of more foreign contractors in local contracts at the expense of local contractors. In this respect, the Government will review the contracting framework for infrastructure projects in the country with a view of ensuring participation of local contractors in local contracts. This will retain domestic revenues within the country and create jobs for the youth contractors. The restrictions placed on businesses and services as a result of COVID-19 Pandemic have had significant adverse effects on the performance of strategic State-Owned Enterprises offering essential services. Given the contingent liabilities that may arise thereof, I have constituted a technical team at the National Treasury and Planning to review the challenges facing State-Owned Enterprises and recommend remedial actions within 90 days. On pending bills, we have noted that several State Corporations and Semi-Autonomous Government Agencies (SAGAs) hold significant amounts of pending bills owed to contractors, suppliers, SACCO remittances, and other statutory deductions. This practice should not be allowed to continue. Following a Cabinet Directive, the National Treasury constituted a Pending Bills Multi-Agency Team (PB-MAT) to deal with existing historical and contested pending bills. Significant progress has been made to settle some of the pending bills. I direct all principal secretaries and accounting officers to clear all pending bills in their MDAs and SAGAs respectively. Further, going forward, the National Treasury may withhold Exchequer releases to the MDAs or SAGAs with pending bills, until an approved payment plan for all pending bills is agreed upon."
}