IFMIS Trains Over 4000 Suppliers On E-Procurement

The National Treasury has concluded a three week countrywide training exercise aimed at equipping small and medium businesses with requisite knowledge to undertake online procurement.

Treasury through the IFMIS Department trained over 4 000 suppliers of different goods and services to different Government agencies on the use of IFMIS e-Procurement. The suppliers are mostly made up of small businesses.

The training, carried out in all Counties over a three week period, is expected to enable the suppliers effectively participate in tender processes online as all Government agencies adopt e-Procurement.

Speaking in Nairobi during the GOK Supplier sensitisation and training forum, Jerome Ochieng, Director IFMIS, said the exercise was critical in enabling Government agencies and their suppliers wholly adopt the automated procurement and payment system.

IFMIS e-Procurement has been deployed to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), state corporations and the 47 counties with the aim of increasing transparency and accountability in the management of public funds.

“It is essential for suppliers to understand and make use of the system because going forward, procurement will only be undertaken through the system,” he said.

“With the e-Procurement system, streamlining of the entire government procurement process is achievable with the aim of sealing loopholes which are erstwhile prominent in the manual process.”

“The overriding advantages of the IFMIS system are efficiency and transparency. The system allows users to post and process transactions in real time. This saves time and minimises errors.”

Other than the IFMIS e-Procurement module, Treasury has also rolled out the planning and budgeting module that ensures a procuring entity can only purchase what has been approved and within stipulated budget.

“The deployment of IFMIS in Kenya has been a resounding success in improving public financial management. As a matter of fact, we do receive delegations from other countries seeking to benchmark their public finance systems with our own IFMIS. This is proof that we are indeed on the right path,” said Ochieng.

County government officials attended the training forums where they urged suppliers to embrace the e-Procurement system. The officials included Finance Executives and Chief Officers, Heads of Supply Chain Management and procurement officers.

The County supplier sensitization and training forums were a big success. Nairobi drew the largest number of participants with over 2000 registered suppliers in attendance. Training forums in all other counties were equally well attended.