Kenya supply store in sorry state

The supplies department is owed 380 million shillings by various ministries due to their failure to pay for the goods supplied to them.



Speaking during a tour to the supplies offices the newly appointed Permanent Secretary of Public Works, John Lonyangapuo, called on the ministries to pay up their debts to help it get back on its feet.



The government supplies department is in a sorry state considering it cost the government a whooping 859 million shillings to construct years ago.



The PS pledged to computerize the department so as to ensure efficiency.



The deputy secretary of the supplies branch, Mwimbi Likami, told the PS that the department was understaffed making it difficult to compete with to other companies.



Lonyangapuo said that the issue will be addressed as soon as possible.



The main agenda for the department was to supply all government offices countrywide with any items required.

Elsewhere, a team of population consultants, working with the National Coordinating Agency for Population Development have Thursday called for more resource allocation towards family planning efforts in Kenya to check poverty.

The team said that statistics showed a clear link between population growth and economic development.

The threat posed by high maternal and infant death rate, most of these at delivery, led NCAPD to ask for more money from Kenya lawmakers.

The experts called for a check on the country's population growth. All these efforts require money --at least Sh5.3 billion, in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals come 2015, they said.

The returns for pumping more money into family planning and contraceptives, they said, will save the country Sh20 billion in the next five years.

The 2010-2011 budget for the component is Sh530 million, and is expected to jump to Sh2 billion the following year.