President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday gave a direct order to stop all projects that may have stalled due to lack of funds or suffered from changing priorities by ordering their completion.
According to president Kenyatta all new projects are meant to stop until the old ones are completed, except those linked to the Big Four Agenda which he said will still require express authority from the Treasury.
In his statement the President said, “Even if new projects are aligned to the Big Four they cannot be started without express, written authority from CS or PS of the National Treasury.”
The president also gave athorough warning to all the governmengt bofficials who are used to starting new projects without completing the old ones will be responsible and action taken upon them.
The country is cluttered up with many pending projects that have been overlooked in annual allocations. They are either politically affiliated with every change of leadership come new priorities or vengeance or mismanagement.
This projects just to mention a few include KIRDI headquarters in South B and Mtihani House in South C, Nairobi, that has been under construction for nearly 35 years, and the Kenya Industrial Training Institute in Nakuru county.
Many projects initiated under the Stimulus programme when Uhuru was Minister for Finance and several CDF projects have also been abandoned.
President Kenyatta attributed the directive as an aim of stopping wastage of resources and the habit of government agencies abandoning incomplete projects to jump into new ones.
He said while addressing some government officials at Kenyatta International Convention Centre, “There will be no new projects that will be embarked on until you complete those that are ongoing.”
The meeting was attended by Principal secretaries, Parastatal heads, vice-chancellors of public universities and chairmen of state corporations.
National Assembly Budget and Appropriation committee chairman Kimani Ichung’wa hailed the directive as timely that will see prudent utilization of taxpayers money.
While speaking to one of the local dailies, Kikuyu Member of Parliament said, “That is perfectly in order. If you read recommendations of the Budget committee 2018/2019, we had recommended that government expedite completion of ongoing projects. I am happy that the President has identified himself with our recommendation.”
He added further added saying, “We have very strained resources, you overstretch yourself going into new projects and we are are yet to complete others so new projects start competing for resources with the ongoing ones.”
Soon aafter, President Kenyatta announced the launch of the new internet procurement portal where all procurement work will be published for everyone to have a glimpse of what is going on.
He further added saying that all government tenders and contracts will be advertised on the portal for transparency in order to safeguard public resources.
In his statement Uhuru further said, “All procurement officers have been taken through the operations of the portal and they have given their feedback. The portal will be launched soon.”
The portal will help create accountability because Kenyans will be able to see the processes followed in awarding of tenders.
The President urged the officers to familiarise themselves with the expectations of Kenyans and guard public resources. He reiterated that the war against corruption will go on and assured those who act within the law that they have nothing to fear.
It was not clear what will happen to the new projects whose funding is provided in the budget read last month by both the national and county governments.
The president announced the portal while addressing government accounting officers including Principal Secretaries, Parastatal Heads, Vice Chancellors of Public Universities and Chairmen of State Corporations at KICC.