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IFMIS E-Procurement Training For Clerks Of County Assemblies [Speech]

BY · August 25, 2015 08:08 am

Clerks of County Assemblies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my pleasure to stand before you this morning to open this one day e-procurement training. I wish to express that the National Treasury recognizes the role that County Assemblies play towards enhancing efficiency in public finance management and in particular public procurement in the Counties.
Ladies and Gentlemen, 

It is now a year since His Excellency the President launched IFMIS electronic procurement on 13th August 2014. The overriding aim of IFMIS e-Procurement module is to enhance transparency and accountability in the entire procurement process from procurement planning, requisition, sourcing, and all the way to payment. The National Treasury has made tremendous strides since the launch. IFMIS e-Procurement is now fully operational in the National Government. The system has also been rolled out to all the 47 county governments. Today’s training will provide in depth understanding of IFMIS e-procurement processes and steps. The workshop will also offer an opportunity for deliberations on how best to enhance IFMIS e-procurement implementation in the County Assemblies.
Ladies and Gentlemen

I wish to highlight that Section 227 of the Constitution of Kenya provides for establishment of a system for procurement of goods and services that is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective. In addition The National Treasury is mandated by Section 12 (1) (e) of the Public Finance Management Act (2012) to design and prescribe an efficient financial management system for the National and County governments to ensure transparent financial management and standard financial reporting.

It is on this premise that the National Treasury embarked on developing an electronic procurement system under the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS). This is a show of the National Treasury’s commitment to the implementation of the constitutional and legislative provisions aimed at streamlining public procurement.

Ladies and Gentlemen

As Clerks of County Assemblies you will appreciate that e-procurement will contribute immensely to effective and efficient service delivery to Kenyans. E-Procurement will increase visibility and accountability at all levels of the procurement process from procurement planning, requisition, sourcing, to payment.

IFMIS e-procurement system is linked to an Item Master which has indicative prices for all commonly used items. This will ensure that there are no price inflations by procuring entities thus enhancing value for money procurement.

As you will be shown during the presentation by IFMIS officers, the e- procurement system also has inbuilt approvals at all levels of the procurement process to enhance checks, controls and accountability.

In addition, E-procurement increases efficiency through enhanced competition, transparency and lower transaction costs. The system is designed to enable the government increase and monitor government procurement opportunities to the preference groups, including women, youth and persons with disability.

IFMIS e-procurement will therefore ensure that public procurement of goods and services is done fairly, equitably, transparently, competitively and in a cost effective manner by all government procuring entities.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In order to reap the incredible benefits of e-procurement, there in need for collaboration and consultation between County governments, Suppliers and the National Treasury. The need for capacity enhancement for county government users and suppliers is a topmost priority for the National Treasury. It is in this regard that The National Treasury has trained over 4000 suppliers on e-Procurement; the training was first initiated in 2013 where all the 47 Counties were covered. In June this year we conducted the training of suppliers in all the 47 Counties in a period of two weeks. This was to ensure that the suppliers fully understand that Government procurement has gone online and they should not be left behind as we move forward. We equally have the IFMIS Academy, the training arm of IFMIS Department that is fully dedicated to training your officers on the use of the IFMIS system.

In addition The National Treasury’s IFMIS officers are currently conducting onsite training and support in every County. The officers will be offering support to County IFMIS users on various operational issues including loading of procurement plans, training on end to end e-procurement process, addressing the issue of pending bills and other system issues as will be raised by county users.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The issue of disbursement of funds to the counties is of great concern to County governments. We all appreciate that disbursement of funds has other dependencies that includes legislative approvals. However, the National Treasury commits to execution of exchequer release to the Counties as promptly as possible to avoid any undue delay in service delivery to Wananchi in the Counties.
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The e-procurement training today will fully anchor you on the IFMIS E-procurement processes so that you are able to appreciate the roles that county assembly officers will be performing in the system, and to equally hold them to account.

It is my humble submission that this training will enhance your appreciation of the role that the system will play in enhancing prudent procurement in your County Assembly.
I therefore urge you to take keen interest in this training and look forward to a collaborative and consultative engagement between the County Assemblies and the National Treasury in this forum and beyond.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is now my pleasure to declare the IFMIS e-procurement training for clerks of the County Assemblies officially opened.


 

KAMAU THUGGE, EBS

PRINCIPAL SECRETARY, NATIONAL TREASURY

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