The Institute of Economic Affairs wants Kenya to streamline the absorption of donor funds to ensure quick completion of donor funded projects.
It said while Kenya's infrastructure projects are heavily dependent on donor funding the country has performed poorly in executing the projects.
Speaking at a post-budget public analysis in Nairobi, IEA officials termed the government's infrastrarcture expenditure plans as "too ambitious" since the sector heavily depends on donor funds yet the disbursement is slow.
They cited roads and the ongoing Standard Gauge Railway as some of the projects that heavily depend on donor funding saying they could stall unless the funds flow steadily.
The officials said the main drawbacks include tight procurement rules and update reports needed by the donors but which ministries fail to deliver on time.
“Donor fund disbursement by the end of the year is 50 per cent of what should have been released. This has been recurrent. Our target is 80 per cent absorption but we are doing less than 60 per cent on infrastructure budget. We have never gotten it right,” said IEA programme officer John Mutua.
He said the government needs to scale down on what it expects from donors to fund infrastructure.
The national government plans to spend Sh298.52 billion on infrastructure in the country’s 2015/16 financial year Sh2.2 trillion budget.
IEA chief executive Kwame Owino said the government should speed up the use of e-procurement to address lapses in processes that may delay funding of projects.
“It is time for us to lose patience with the excuse of procurement taking too long. The government needs to have the automated systems to address such challenges,” said Owino.
During the forum, the government was asked to consider using the country’s military to construct roads among other infrastructural projects.
IEA also called on the government to wipe out cartels in the sugar industry if the proposed measures on imported sugar by Treasury are to work.
The sugar sector currently in problems due to an influx of cheap imported sugar got a reprieve, after Treasury increased the duty on imported sugar from $200 (Sh19,574) to $460 (Sh45,0220) per metric tonne.
“This will work depending on measures the government will put in place to address notorious cartels behind illegal sugar imports,” said Raphael Muya, IEA project officer.