Ruto: Digitisation has helped curb corruption in government

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 27 – President William Ruto says the digitisation of government services and payments has significantly reduced opportunities for corruption by eliminating cash transactions and improving accountability.

Ruto said the Government had eliminated cash payments for public services and consolidated government payments through a single platform, allowing the National Treasury to track transactions.

“Just by digitizing government services and payment, we have significantly reduced transactions in cash that end up being areas of corruption,” Ruto said.

He said the Government previously operated more than 1,000 government pay bills, which he described as difficult to monitor.

“Today we have one and the Treasury can see all government payments and where it is going,” he said.
Ruto also cited the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) as another measure aimed at improving management of public funds.

He said the system allows the Government to establish how much money it has across different accounts and identify idle funds, reducing the need to borrow when public resources are available elsewhere.

The President said the Government had also introduced the Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) system to improve transparency and standardise public procurement.

He said the system allows the Government to compare prices and ensure public institutions pay similar prices for the same goods and services.

“We are possibly saving up to 10 percent of all our procurement just by making e-procurement possible,” Ruto said.

He said the Government had faced resistance in implementing the system but maintained that all public entities would be required to use the electronic procurement platform.

Ruto further pointed to proposed reforms on the appointment of boards of State corporations and agencies, saying the Government was seeking to make the process more transparent through public advertisement of positions.

He said the reforms were aimed at reducing political influence in appointments to government agencies.