Macharia decries fraud in listing of AGPO firms
By Irene.Githinji, March 7, 2023
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has assured that it has been reserving 30 per cent of its procurement budget to youth, women and persons with disabilities (PWDs).
TSC Secretary Nancy Macharia, however, said fraud in registration of Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) firms is one of the issues they have had to deal with while enforcing the 30 per cent threshold in reserving public procurement for disadvantaged groups.
“Existence of unscrupulous businessmen who register their relatives or PWD to participate in the tender process without the knowledge of the ones registered,” Macharia told the National Assembly Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunities chaired by Adan Haji Yussuf.
She also said some international companies have taken advantage of Kenyans by registering firms under special groups to access the procurement opportunities.
“Most of these firms have not complied with the provisions of Section 157 (11) of the PPAD Act, which provides that Youth, Women and PWD must be the mandatory signatories of the bank accounts of such firms registered under their names,” she said.
Capital intensive
She urged the relevant government agencies to conduct a national audit of all the firms registered under the AGPO group to determine true beneficiaries of the funds, adding that it is also necessary for the registration process to be enhanced to meet the intention of the law.
She also said that some of the tenders are capital intensive and specialised in nature hence locking out the AGPO group who have small or medium sized businesses. According to Macharia, such tenders include Procurement of Insurance Services, Purchase of Motor Vehicles, procurement of specialized plants, high-end specialized ICT Equipment among others.