Kenya Govt Still using equipment that belongs in the Museum

Yet your politicians drive top of the range guzzlers funded by taxpayer money.

[SIZE=6]Government Printer stuck with equipment acquired from 1930 [/SIZE]
Friday December 30 2022
https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/resource/image/4070330/landscape_ratio16x9/1160/652/bf96061a4a5082a6c3301a9554ff3fe4/Gu/press.jpg

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta (second right) at the Government Printer in 2015. PHOTO | PSCU

Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu has raised concern over the use of aged and obsolete equipment by the Government Press.

Ms Gathungu says more than 70 percent of the printing machines in use were acquired between 1930 and 1980.

“This has led to obsolescence with frequent breakdowns and hence high maintenance costs, and difficulty in sourcing for spare parts for maintenance of the otherwise outdated machines,” Ms Gathungu said in the latest audit of the Government Press Fund.

She said the use of aged equipment has increased production costs and hence reduced its competitive advantage in the industry. The Government Press prints for Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government and the general public.

Last year, the Government Press said it was seeking Sh300 million from the Treasury to upgrade its ageing plant.

The Interior Ministry told Parliament that the Government Press is reviewing its services to set the cost of printing at market rates.

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Former Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho said the Government Press was grossly underfunded.

He said the Sh300 million would go into initial modernisation works of the plant. The Press prints documents such as budgets, Economic Surveys, Acts of Parliament and Gazette Notices. It sells Controller of Budget and Auditor-General reports at Sh5,000 per volume, an Act of Parliament at Sh110 and Commissions of Inquiry reports at Sh1800.

The Government Printer charges ministries for printing Gazette supplements at a range of Sh15 for two pages to Sh180 for a maximum of 40 pages.

It is the designated printer of all security-related documents, including title deeds, log books, birth and death certificates and revenue stamps.

The ministry said the Press prints for Ministry of Lands, the Civil Registration Department, the National Transport Safety Authority and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics among others at subsidised rates.

However, it does not charge the National Assembly and the Senate as well as the Treasury for printing documents.

Ms Gathungu said a physical inspection of its paper stores poor ventilation that exposes workers to the risk of contracting respiratory diseases “Further, the department did not have adequate safety and firefighting equipment in the stores.”

https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/economy/government-printer-stuck-with-equipment-acquired-from-1930-4070314

If the machine works, why replace it?

Government press should be shut down. And those machines disposed off as scrap metal.Its the only profitable thing to do.
Printing a few copies of title deeds, birth certificates and kenya gazzette does not justify anything. Just give the job to many private security printers available locally.
Like Ellams or even De La Rue.

Do we really need a government printer?

So they told the AG they still typeset in linotype and still operate the hot letter press? But they also have facilities to produce full color works.

Hapana. Hau ni ndarega. The govt should print its own documents.

Yes. Some documents are too sensitive to be left to cynical merchants. Kumbuka story kama hii?

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Poor use of 300 million considering that the government is it’s own major customer.

Surprisingly the government printer does not print passports which are outsourced.

If they printed textbooks and all publications gor all government departments and parastatals then this investment would make sense.

Including number plates

Pesa ya lunch kidogo ni tamu sana

Even private companies print their documents inhouse. Hawa print kwa cyber. The government should also print its own documents.

It is good for govt to have one because those tenders will be inflated, atleast buying of machines happens once in a decade

That’s a document security feature in it’s self.

Ink blots are not a security feature.

Waturedio do you know those old machines Zina chapa kazi vizuri kuliko the new Chinese machines.
Enda print pak kenya uone printing machine chambone uulize ni ya mwaka gani then uangalie kazi inachapa na quality

Itategemea how efficient the machine is. An old machine might be working perfectly but ina slow down kazi.

Old machines are good - for generating repair works once in a while.

Printing presses kama Heidelberg lasts for decades.