Tension unfolded in Parliament on Tuesday when Nancy Gathungu and John Mbadi disagreed sharply over the performance of the Electronic Government Procurement system.
The two appeared before committees of the National Assembly, where concerns were raised about how the system is affecting public spending and project implementation.
While presenting her 2026 Budget Policy Statement to the Budget Committee, Gathungu raised serious concerns about the efficiency of the Electronic Government Procurement platform, commonly known as e-GP.
She questioned whether the system is delivering on its promise to digitize end-to-end public procurement planning, tendering, and contract management.
She told Members of Parliament that the system has caused delays and created challenges for users across government institutions.
According to her, many officers and bidders are struggling to use the platform effectively.
“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,” she said.
Gathungu further disclosed that as at 20 February 2026, only about 540 contracts had been processed nationwide through the system.
She described this number as too low for a platform that was rolled out nationally and expected to handle thousands of procurement transactions.
She warned that the weaknesses in the system have had wider effects on government operations.
“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,” said Gathungu.
However, Mbadi defended the government’s position, saying the system is still being improved and should not be dismissed. He argued that digitizing procurement is necessary to improve transparency and accountability in public finance.
“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,” said Mbadi.
The disagreement extended beyond procurement. Mbadi also spoke about the government’s plans to privatize key assets, including shares in Safaricom.
“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 opposed the move to sell national assets to finance 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?’’
Parliament’s Finance Committee has insisted that Treasury should only complete the Safaricom-Vodacom deal after the end of the 2025/2026 financial year to avoid losing dividends estimated at Ksh.7 billion.
The debate now places pressure on Treasury to balance fiscal needs with long-term financial stability.
