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State losing Sh70bn yearly for using 100-year-old machines

 

National and county governments cumulatively lose Sh70 billion yearly outsourcing printing services that could have otherwise been done by Government Press, a presidential taskforce has revealed.

The chairman of the Taskforce on Modernisation and Transformation of the Government Press Narendra Raval further said money is spent monthly repairing obsolete machines at the Government Press.

“A lot of money is lost when official documents, examination papers, LPOs, receipts and many other papers are not printed at Government Press,” he told the Star.

Speaking after a tour of the Government Press along Haile Selassie Avenue in Nairobi, Raval noted that machines, being a century old, break down more often than not.  

“You would rather buy new printing machines than repair those that have broken down. These machines are very old, use very outdated technology and they keep breaking down,” Raval said.

He said there was an urgent need for the Government Press to use more efficient and highly performing machines.

 “It is a shame for the government to run such a press,” Raval, a renowned industrialist, entrepreneur and philanthropist, said.

Printer's Chief Executive Officer Abdi Ali Hassan said they have been using machines purchased in 1930  to print official documents.

He noted that there has been significant advancement in the methods, technology and infrastructure for production, standardisation, dissemination, cataloguing and safeguarding national documents.

“Apart from costs incurred to repair the machines, they are very slow thereby hindering service delivery,” Hassan added.

Since its establishment in 1895, there have been various unsuccessful attempts by the various administrations to modernise and transform Government Press.    BY THE STAR   

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