UHURU PUTS BRAKES ON FUNDING NEW PROJECTS

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President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday gave a lease of life to projects that that may have stalled due to lack of funds or suffered from changing priorities by ordering their completion.

The President put breaks on new projects until the old ones are complete, except those linked to the Big Four Agenda — which he said will still require express authority from the Treasury.

“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,” he said.

Uhuru also warned that government officials who embark on new projects before finishing ongoing initiatives without authorisation will be held responsible.

The country is littered with many stalled projects that have been overlooked in annual allocations. They are either casualties of politics — with every change of leadership comes new priorities or vengeance — or mismanagement.

They are KIRDI headquarters in South B and Mtihani House in South C, Nairobi. The latter has been under construction for nearly 35 years, and the Kenya Industrial Training Institute in Nakuru county.

Many projects initiated under the Economic Stimulus Programme when Uhuru was Minister for Finance and several CDF projects have also been abandoned.

Uhuru said the directive is aimed at stopping wastage of resources and the habit of government agencies abandoning incomplete projects to jump into new ones.

“There will be no new projects that will be embarked on until you complete those that are ongoing,” Uhuru told a meeting of government accounting officers at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.

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 utilisation of taxpayers' money.


“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," the Kikuyu MP told the Star on phone.

He added: "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."

He said public resources were being wasted on projects that are started and then abandoned.

At the same time, President Kenyatta announced that the government will soon launch a new Internet portal where all procurement information will be published.

The President said all tenders and contracts will be advertised in the portal to create transparency and in order to safeguard public resources.

“All procurement officers have been taken through the operations of the portal and have given their feedback. The portal will be launched soon,” he said.

Uhuru added that 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.
By Godwin Peter.




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