Devolution Cabinet Secretary Ann Waiguru capable of defending her docket, Treasury must up game

Devolution Cabinet Secretary Ann Waiguru is a dedicated and no-nonsense public servant, out to carve a niche for herself in the performance history of this nation.

All the years I have known her, she’s been a stubborn hard worker, with unparalleled zest for success and a high sense of achievement. She openly detests mediocrity, and lambasts those dragging her down in her dreams.

She is not a thief, and I do not think she would entertain folks dipping their fingers into her till. Her zeal to impress Uhuru that she can turn around the fortunes of the slum dwellers may have been a little overstretched, but she did it in good faith and had made an impact.

To do so, she had to re-energise the dormant NYS into a powerful machinery to give hopes to the youth.

However, there is everything wrong with the State House running wraps around us on all manner of issues that could best be left to others.

For instance, why would State House get drawn into this NYS saga and create a wrong impression that Ms Waiguru is in such a bad situation that the President has to come to her defence?

I am convinced that the CS would have made a pretty job about her defence than the meddling by her boss, whose statements naturally attract the opposition’s chorus. Last time State House got involved in the purported EACC list of shame, they got stuck in the mud and went down with many public servants who have not been indicted by any court to date.

It is clear that there are folks at NYS who attempted to dip their fingers into the till through IFMIS manipulation; Ann should have sent the director and his team packing pronto even before commencing investigations. IFMIS has been her baby for years, when she was head of governance, and acting IFMIS director at the Treasury. She understands that system more than anyone else in the country, and she just launched the re-engineering of the system in 2013. Her docket, NYS, should be the last office to toy with the idea.

Treasury started the IFMIS system in early 2000s but have never quite got it right. As late as last year, Treasury was concerned about errors in IFMIS generated data. For instance, a ministry complained last year that IFMIS showed it spent Sh102 million, when it has actually spent Sh6 billion. Research done in 2012 by the University of Nairobi reveals that the benefits of public expenditure control was not realised in IFMIS due to staff resistance and sabotage on use of the system, lack of management commitment and system complexity.

The system has no back up, and is not routinely audited to provide assurance over its soundness and effectiveness.

It is precisely this lack of audit of the system that led to the crash of the Malawian government IFMIS system in 2012/13, known as ‘cashgate’ in which there was systematic theft of up to US$ 50 million by politicians, business people and public servants. This led to donors freezing aid, and the cabinet being disbanded.

In Zambia, their IFMIS system, which costs $43 million, is in no better situation, often accused of being open to abuse. Across the developing world, challenges of an effective IFMIS system continue to dog governments. The NYS saga should sound an alarm to the Treasury to up its game on IFMIS before a disaster strikes.