While the field of ICT is ranked among the most favoured by this year’s Kenyan government budget, it will also be used to implement most of the programmes and ensure efficiency and value for money.
The budget unveiled by Treasury cabinet secretary Henry Rotich included provision for the rollout of e-procurement by making operational the Procure-to-Pay module of the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS).
“Henceforth, all government procurement will be done electronically, and the days of inflated prices will be a thing of the past. To entrench accountability, a new procurement law will shortly be submitted to this House,” said Rotich.
He also drew attention to the implementation of a Digital Government Payment Gateway to efficiently link government payments and service delivery, making it easier for Kenyans to pay for services, sealing loopholes and raising revenues.
ICT is also going to be instrumental in revenue mobilisation that will eventually be used in the transformation agenda, by strengthening the revenue collection effort by bringing into the tax net all potential taxpayers.
“This entails implementing reforms to enhance revenue administration capacity; simplifying and modernising tax legislations; and leveraging ICT to enhance tax compliance,” said Rotich.
The process for establishing small scale businesses will also be made easier as the government intends to make the e-registry fully operational during this financial year to enable small scale businesses to apply for, pay for and acquire licences for their businesses with ease.
Rotich also said the government will establish a state of the art one-stop investment shop and expand the one-stop public service Huduma centres, to make it easier for all investors to set up businesses.
