Governors call for overhaul of ‘erratic’ Treasury finance system

By Steve Mkawale

Kenya: Governors have blamed the Integrated Finance Management Information System (Ifmis) for failure of some of the counties to submit their budgets on time.

Council of Governors chairman Isaac Ruto said yesterday the system suffers frequent breakdowns and joined fellow governors in calling for its overhaul, claiming it was hampering operations in the 47 counties. The governors also blamed the system for the delay in the release of devolved funds.

“The problems relate to connectivity and modules which may not be immediately applicable, issues of which need to be addressed urgently,” Ruto said.

But the director in charge of Ifmis at the Treasury, Jerome Ochieng, dismissed their claims and alleged that some county officials opposed to change were resisting the use of the system.

“The system is widely used but there has been some few cases where the users are reluctant to embrace change in public finance management. But in places where there are challenges we have been able to send our officials to rectify,” he said.

Ruto gave the example of Garissa County, which he said had only received money for September and October last year due to the connectivity challenges.

“It is a serious challenge for a large number of the counties and it has led to low usage of the devolved funds…but those issues will be addressed comprehensively on Friday at a meeting in Nairobi,” Ruto said.

Mr Ochieng said connectivity was not a major challenge to stop them from operating.

“A team deployed to check the system in counties discovered that some county officials had switched off the system. Connectivity is not an issue at this stage. We have gone ahead and given a second connection option point-to-point dedicated link,” he said.

Ochieng said there was a challenge in capacity among the staff operating the systems in the counties and called for continuous training.

Meanwhile, governors admitted that they have encountered challenges in formulating tax laws, which have sparked off protests over enactment and operationalisation of the County Finance Acts.

However, the governors offered to make amends on a case by case basis so as to forestall a further spat with members of the business community and the public.

In the recent past a wave of demonstrations has hit various counties following increased levies and rates, which have affected business operations.

The governors said during a meeting in Naivasha that members of the public have a constitutional right to petition county assemblies and governors.

“In some cases, members of the public may not have participated in the process of formulating the Finance Bills, hence the protests. But they have a right to appeal to the Assemblies or the Governors directly,” said Ruto.