MPs have cancelled a Treasury order that forced public offices to use the e-procurement system

On 12th August 2025, the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) issued Circular No. 04/2025 to all government ministries, state departments, constitutional commissions, state corporations, universities, county governments, public schools, and other public institutions. The purpose of the circular is to enforce compliance with the mandatory use of the Electronic Government Procurement System (E-GPS) by all public procuring entities.

Circular: earlier communication by the Office of the President and the National Treasury on the rollout of an end-to-end electronic procurement system from 1st July 2025. It also recalls previous PPRA circulars that provided guidance on the integration of the Public Procurement Information Portal with the E-GPS and on the handling of framework agreements during the transition period. Also, the National Treasury had issued guidelines on 23rd July 2025 to help procuring entities address challenges in the transition to the E-GPS.

PPRA notes that some procuring entities have continued to conduct procurement outside the E-GPS platform and, in some cases, have attempted to backdate procurement records to before 30th June 2025. Thus, the authority has reminded all accounting officers of the following key points:

1. Any attempt to circumvent government directives on the use of E-GPS constitutes an offence and is subject to penalties under the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act (Cap. 412C).

2. From 1st July 2025, all public procurement and asset disposal transactions must be conducted through the E-GPS. Any procurements done outside the system and paid for will be surcharged to the officer who authorised the transaction.

3. As earlier communicated, from 1st July 2025, all procurement opportunities are to be processed through the E-GPS. Procuring entities are therefore required to stop publishing new tender opportunities on the Public Procurement Information Portal (PPIP).

4. PPRA has a record of all procurement proceedings uploaded to the PPIP by the end of the financial year 2024/2025. For existing contracts to be approved for payment, only those that were duly reported to PPRA in compliance with Circular No. 04/2022 of 1st July 2022 will be processed.

5. The accounting officer bears the duty and responsibility of safeguarding public resources and ensuring that all procurement is conducted well, in line with Article 227 of the Constitution and in compliance with the Act and directives issued by the National Treasury and PPRA.

The circular concludes by directing all accounting officers to bring its contents to the attention of all officers involved in procurement and asset disposal within their jurisdictions.