State Department for Public Investments and Assets Management Principal Secretary Cyrell Wagunda, has confirmed that the government will not back out of the decision to adopt the Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) system.
Wagunda said that the government is determined to fully implement the electronic supply chain management system which will see the migration of all government procurement processes to the digital platform.
As a justification for embracing the new format, the PS said that the e-GP will bring efficiency in government adding that going forward anybody wishing to secure a government tender will have no choice but to do it electronically.
“The National Treasury is trying to digitalize all their processes so that we can bring sanity in the way government is being run. And one of these ways is through the Electronic Government Procurement system. What we are trying to do with e-GP is to bring sanity in the way goods and services are procured in government,” he stated.
The e-GP system was rolled out at the beginning of the 2025/2026 fiscal year and it is expected to become the sole procurement platform for all procurement processes for in Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies. The system which is fully digitized, requires suppliers to register on the online platform, submit their tender bids online and track the status of the tenders online.
In order to reduce fraud, e-GP has been integrated with the Kenya Revenue Authority’s iTax system, the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), the Business Registration Service and the Integrated Population Registration System.
Wagunda said that embracing the new way of doing business is expected to save the government between Sh150-250 billion which would have otherwise been lost through procurement malpractices.
“This is not a punishment. What e-GP is trying to do, is bring out transparency, to cut costs and to eliminate corruption. We can take the Sh200 billion that we are saving to education or health or we can take it to any sector of this economy,” he emphasized.
He noted that whereas the High Court had temporarily stopped the enforcement of the exclusive use of e-GP system for procurement and the National Assembly had also rejected the system, the Public Procurement and Disposal Act does not explicitly restrict the government from choosing to either stay manual or embrace a digital system.
Wagunda also said that despite the ongoing debate, almost 90 per cent of State Departments and 20 procurement entities have already complied.
Similarly, some counties including Busia, Kakamega, Elgeyo Marakwet, Murang’a and Lamu had already published their annual procurement plans.
“What the law says is that we can have the two-running parallel. It is either manual or electronic. But the government has chosen to go the electronic way and what government is saying is that if you want to do business with government, do it electronically,” stated the PS.
“Nobody is being forced to do business with government. If you don’t want to do business with government stay at home. It is as simple as that. In fact I was telling my officers the fewer the suppliers we have, the better so that we don’t have 40 million people applying for government tenders. So, anybody who wants to tender or anybody who wants to do business with government, please make sure you register electronically.”
PS Wagunda spoke in Nyeri on Friday when he presided over the closing ceremony of a 5-day workshop the on User -Acceptance Training and Roll out of IFMIS Asset/Inventory Module for counties.
The workshop was organized by the National Treasury with the aim of sensitizing accountants and procurement officers from Nakuru, Kirinyaga, Murang’a, Kiambu, Meru, Nyandarua and Nairobi counties.
So far, the state department has sensitized 42 counties on how to trace and record assets in a central system.
By Wangari Mwangi and Diana Odipo
