Auditor General Nancy Gathungu and Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi squared off on Tuesday over the state of Kenya’s Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) system, highlighting persistent challenges in public procurement.
The disagreement emerged during a joint appearance before Parliamentary committees on Budget and Finance, where each official presented starkly different views on the platform’s performance.
Gathungu pointed out that the system has caused delays in procurement processes, slowed the start of projects, and left funds underused while pending bills continue to pile up.
In her presentation of the 2026 Budget Policy Statement to the National Assembly Budget Committee, she said the e-GP system has fallen short of its mandate to fully digitize public procurement planning, tendering, and contract management.
“Many users struggled to navigate the system and submit compliant digital bids. These capacity gaps were compounded by system downtimes, freezes during peak tenders, and One-Time-Password (OTP) failures, disrupting tender opening and evaluation. We also noted integration weaknesses where the system is not synchronized to KRA iTax compliance,” Gathungu said.
She further disclosed that as of 20 February 2026, the uptake of e-GP remained low, with only around 540 contracts processed nationwide, a figure far below expectations for a national platform.
“The e-GP challenges have translated into procurement delays, slow project startups, under absorption of funds, growth in pending bills, and widening gaps between approved budgets and actual out turns, thereby posing a material risk to credible and timely budget execution over the period under review. Urgent action is required to stabilize the platform, complete integration with IFMIS and compliance databases,” she warned.
Treasury CS John Mbadi, however, insisted that the platform is still being improved. “The Auditor General is then acting in illegallity if she’s using manual procurement. I hope the Auditor General is not using this as an excuse. e-procurement will be 100% functional in the next financial calendar,” he said.
The disagreement also touched on plans to sell national assets such as Safaricom shares. Mbadi stressed the need to meet tight deadlines for privatization. “We are racing against time in privatization of KPC whose deadline is today and Ksh.106 billion and Ksh.244 billion on Safaricom in the next few weeks,” he said.
Gathungu raised concerns about the long-term consequences of selling state assets to fund infrastructure projects. “I am opposed to selling of national assets to put funds into infrastructure fund...in future, if we have no more assets to sell what happens to the fund?’’ she questioned.
Parliamentary watchdogs have advised that the Safaricom-Vodacom transaction should be finalized only after the 2025/2026 financial year concludes, in order to safeguard government dividends, which currently amount to Ksh.7 billion.
