The government is seeking an additional Ksh200 million to establish a new Government-Owned Enterprises (GOE) Department, even as lawmakers raised concerns about growing budgetary pressures and increased public spending.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

The request was tabled before the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning by the State Department for Public Investments and Asset Management, which warned that reduced funding could derail key government reforms.

Principal Secretary Cyrell Odede told MPs that the newly created department urgently requires funding to operationalise the Government Owned Enterprises Act, 2025, which seeks to transform struggling parastatals into commercially viable entities.

According to the PS, Ksh20 million will be used to facilitate the operations of the GOE Selection Panel and Secretariat, while another Ksh80 million has been earmarked for the recruitment of 390 independent directors across 65 government-owned enterprises.

📌 What You Need to Know

The State Department, which was carved out of the Treasury last year, revealed that its budget had been reduced from Ksh4.05 billion to Ksh3.38 billion, translating to a shortfall of Ksh670.8 million.

Odede warned MPs that the reduction threatens the full rollout of the Electronic Government Procurement System (e-GP), which the government hopes will digitise procurement processes in both national and county governments .

“Such a significant reduction worsens the already constrained budgetary position of the Department and risks derailing effective implementation of planned programmes and projects,” Odede told the committee chaired by Kuria Kimani.

The department is also seeking the reinstatement of Ksh743 million to support the design, installation, maintenance, and expansion of the e-procurement platform, as well as capacity-building and change-management programmes .

Lawmakers questioned the progress of the digital procurement system, with MPs demanding details on supplier registration and implementation timelines. Officials disclosed that more than 45,000 suppliers had already registered on the platform against a target of 100,000 by the end of the financial year.

At the same time, the department defended a separate Ksh1.125 billion allocation to the Consolidated Bank of Kenya aimed at boosting the bank’s capital adequacy ratio in line with Central Bank of Kenya regulations.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke