Governors: Treasury to blame for lack of public participation in key county decisions
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-l... 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.
@ 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@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-l...
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.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke
Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/gitaugk%40gmail.com
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 not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
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@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@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.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke
Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/options/kictanet/gitaugk%40gmail.com
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 not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet Twitter: http://twitter.com/kictanet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KICTANet/ Domain Registration sponsored by www.eacdirectory.co.ke
Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/ mailman/options/kictanet/fmwangangi1%40gmail.com
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 not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
participants (3)
-
florence mwangangi -
Geoffrey Gitau -
S.M. Muraya