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

Sun Jun 17 17:02:17 EAT 2018

Very well said. My experience as Speaker, Machakos County Assembly in the
last few months is that ICT is under-utilized not only in revenue
management but also in other systems of the Counties. It calls for
inter-governmental/agency collaboration to move Counties to a level of ICT
compliance to enhance transparency in the management of public funds and
hence reduction of loss/wastage of resources.

On Wed, Jun 6, 2018 at 7:02 AM, Geoffrey Gitau via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> @ 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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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
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