Listers,

First we have to look at 2 things here, IFMIS the Government project to automate the Financial affairs of Treasury and the technology platform behind it, Oracle. We can't really fault technology here as I want to believe Oracle Financials has been implemented successfully in a couple of projects.

The way I see it is that IFMIS cannot and should not be used to stop corruption, but, its supposed to put in checks & balances in the whole process so as to make corruption that much more difficult and / or provide reports that can be used in an Audit Trail.

Any system that allows 1 out of 3 transactions to be suspect cannot vouch to be a properly implemented system whichever way one looks at it! If, as an example, you are issuing Imprests through the system and this Imprest is not accounted for, and you continue to issue more of the same Imprest to persons who have millions already unaccounted for, then the system has simply been implemented badly or maybe implemented/designed in such a way that its is going to fail.

So far, we have spent a few billion shillings on IFMIS, hiring expensive consultants from Dubai, buying servers with capacity that can be used to launch Space Satellites, and yet the end result is simply the same as if we were to go manual. 

We are also rolling out the same system that allows 1/3 of suspect transactions to go through to the Counties, without first getting it right in the Central Government, in yet the clearest indication that the new County Governments are all about Devolved Corruption.

Bottomline, there are those who are benefiting from the current status quo. The Civil Servants who don't bother to attach supporting documents when filing for payments on IFMIS, knowing very well the system will accept them regardless and those who are benefiting every time this country spends a few billion shillings in acquiring yet more modules, when the basic ones are not even up to scratch.

Regards


On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 5:51 PM, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:
Edward/Listers

Apologies for cross posting but I couldn't help but share Edward's comments penned in the CIO LinkedIn Group.

See email thread below.

Ali Hussein

+254 0770 906375 / 0713 601113

"Kujikwaa si kuanguka, bali ni kwenda mbele" (To stumble is not to fall but a sign of going forward) - Swahili Proverb

Sent from my iPad

On Oct 11, 2013, at 4:58 PM, CIO East Africa Forum <groups-noreply@linkedin.com> wrote:

 
LinkedIn
 
 
 
 CIO East Africa Forum
 
 
 
#IFMIS Reloaded? Is this the silver bullet to corruption?
 
Hi All

My name is Edward and I have been privileged to be an IFMIS trainer i.e. via a consultancy at Treasury we were responsible to train government officials on how to use the new IFMIS system. Its basically an Oracle platform with all accounting modules i.e. GL, AR, AP, PO, CM and FA

Other than the clunky and sometimes confusing oracle interface, the technology platform is OK. Being that it's an oracle platform its able to handle quite a huge amount of traffic and data from ministerial to county levels.

Several security and control measures also exist to ensure correct procedures are followed.

Often times I would pose in class and ask these gentlemen and ladies from GoK what their opinion on corruption and the IFMIS system was and the surprising answer is that they all agreed that though the system provided a role in fighting corruption, the main agents of corruption were the officers themselves who continuously find new ways of cheating the system.

In one class I was amused when one gentleman remarked that Kenyan babies are special. So special that when they come out of their mothers womb, they already know how to be corrupt.

My conclusion to the whole bit is that there is no system smart enough to stop or eliminate corruption. Systems can only make it harder or slow down the process of corruption, but if someone is determined to be corrupt, there is no stopping them. To get rid of corruption we have to look into ourselves we as human beings, we as Kenyans, we as stakeholders of this great country and make the decisions and choices that would see us a better country far removed from this vice.

Edward Ongeso
CTO Integrity Systems Ltd
By Edward Ongeso
 
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