The recent move where the Ministry of Education (MoE) asked principals to comply with End to End Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) has raised a number of questions and confusion among the school heads who have now asked the government to implement the roll out in phases.
A number of school heads who talked to Education News over the matter have indicated that the MoE Circular dated June 18, 2025 which was issued to them and signed by the Basic Education Principal Secretary Prof. Julius Bitok doesn’t comply with the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act and in particular the Public Procurement and Disposal Act.
In the Circular, the Ministry directed the school bosses to comply with the e-GP guidelines in the first quarter of the 2025/2026 Financial Year as per the National Treasury Circular issued on July 10, 2024 directing all accounting officers of procuring entity to prepare for a seamless transition to the use of e-GP system.
“This is to bring to your attention that the Government of Kenya has rolled out the use of e-GP as directed by His Excellency the President during the State of Nation address on November 21, 2024. You are required to implement the use of e-GP system in all your procurement processes by the first quarter of 2025/2026 Financial Year,” said Prof. Bitok in the Circular.
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According to the Act, all budgets by schools or any other educational institution should have been approved by May 30 and the procurement matters in this case, tenders, advertised and awarded by June 30 so that come the beginning of a new Financial Year that is July 1, anything procured must be approved and budgeted.
The principals now note that the MoE Circular is difficult to implement considering that all procurement decisions have already been made rendering this government directive irrelevant, since schools have already done their tenders and it’s impossible to reverse them at this stage without raising legal issues.
Under the new procurement rule captured in the Circular, all school suppliers are required to be tax compliant, with Principals stating that this requirement would work better for established institutions like national schools where student enrolment is high, adding that it is difficult to get suppliers with this requirements at sub-county and some county schools where volumes of procurement are minimal and also with low enrolment of students.
The principals are now appealing to the government to reconsider its decision and implement the policy phases, raising concerns that the MoE has not train them appropriately on the use of this new system before its roll out, and many of them they are going to struggle to implement it.
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They principals added further that the government should also put into consideration that the terms of all Boards of Management (BoMs) in the country expired from June 14, 2025 and this has affected such anticipated procurement decisions in schools.
Under the current procurement rules, all procurement decisions must be made by a full board, and given the current situations in many schools; school heads are confused on how to implement this government directive.
According to MoE, the introduction of e-GP system in schools will reduce the cost of acquiring goods, works and services, and increase transparency in procurement processes and practices.
The system will also improve efficiency in procurement by minimizing the procurement cycle time, maximize value for money, foster accountability, integrity and authenticity of transaction between procuring entities and suppliers; and further streamline procurement procedures across the government through standardization of process and practices.
Furthermore, the system will enhance procurement information management that will facilitate procurement planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
By Our Reporter
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