[kictanet] Governors: Treasury to blame for lack of public participation in key county decisions

[Geoffrey Gitau]

@ SM Muraya
I cannot agree more on your concerns on ICT and revenue management at our
counties. You can neither fetch water with leaking gourds nor can you
reserve it in leaking tanks. The county pulses are leaking when fetching
and when receiving. However, a weakness that creates advantage to the
handlers cannot be resolved without multi-layered mechanisms for prevention
(deterrence), detection, and remediation. System controls must ride on
administrative  controls in an onion like layered system. The outer  skin
layer is people oriented. It is an unobstrusive people driven social
accountability system such as public participation, the next layer is on
internal staffing since this is an incessant point of weakness. Staffing
deals with controls on selection and administration of user departments and
ICT staff. Third is the protection against external physical threats,
disasters and incidental risks, fourth is security from inherent hardware
and software systems vulnerabilities (this is the domain where we ICT
experts mainly concentrate). Across this continuum a raft of legal
frameworks and enforcement codes must be established to give life and
enshrinement of the controls. We need to avoid  lazy man syndrome and
expand our approach on the securing of the revenue for the people it is
intended for by this devolution. Without a devolved social accountability
system the revenue governance will remain porous and no amount of
technology alone can solve this.

Rgds

Dr Gitau Kamau

On Tue, 5 Jun 2018, 8:55 pm S.M. Muraya via kictanet, <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> Dear Listers,
>
> Recently, a certain governor accurately but still mercilessly noted, there
> is no law against favoring traders over farmers in the purchase of cereals.
>
> The statement revealed why certain laws are required to judge (penalize)
> non performance.
>
> After IFMIS access points (= computers or networks) in the counties are
> sabotaged, the Treasury is not obliged by law to engage "Data Controllers
> to ensure access to data" as County CIO positions + functions are yet to be
> defined in our laws.
>
> Note: county expenditure on travel, conferences, seminars, etc, can more
> than fund CRMs to enhance public participation.
>
> The "Talk to the Senate" discussion and report addressed some of the issue
> noted in the link below
>
>
> https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2018/06/05/governors-treasury-to-blame-for-lack-of-public-participation-in-key_c1767945
>
> Due to lack of funds, most counties have been unable to comply with the
>> mandatory public participation, leading to litigation against county
>> governments.
>>
>
>
>> "The Commission on Revenue Allocation has recommended, for the last two
>> financial years, inclusion of funds for public participation in the equal
>> share for county governments through the Division of Revenue Bill," Council
>> of Governors chairman Josphat Nanok said yesterday.
>>
>
> The 47 county assemblies represented by the Society of Clerks at the Table
>> last month requested the Senate to increase their Sh31 billion allocation
>> by another Sh2.1 billion in the 2018-19 financial year starting July 1.
>>
>
>
>> Of the sum, Sh225 million was to be spent on public participation
>> activities.
>
>
> The Public Participation Bill, 2018, seeks to provide a mechanism to
>> facilitate effective and coordinated public participation.
>>
>
>
>> "Public participation processes are different in all institutions and
>> therefore the Bill recognizes these differences and designates responsible
>> authorities for purposes of developing the specific guidelines and offering
>> oversight for public participation," reads part of the Bill.
>>
>
> The governors also flagged poor connectivity in using the state's
>> Integrated Finance Management and Information System (IFMIS) when carrying
>> out transactions as a contributor to huge pending bills.
>>
>
>
>> "Problems associated with the IFMIS and e-procurement systems have
>> contributed to huge pending bills in counties and we hope they will be
>> addressed for us to continue discharging our duties well," Kakamega
>> Governor Wycliffe Oparanya said.
>
>
>
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