Outgoing Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo has joined governors in blaming the Ifmis for some stalled county and national government projects.
Ifmis is the Integrated Financial Management Information System for electronic procurement that is supposed to seal theft loopholes.
While appreciating the significance of the system, Odhiambo said it lacks critical elements and capacity to ensure timely disbursement of funds.
In her end-of-term report, she says ministries, departments and agencies and county governments experience delays in uploading procurement plans and budgets into the system.
“The delay in uploading the plans and budgets into the Ifmis affected the implementation of the work plans,” Odhiambo said.
Her eight-year tenure ends next week.
The budget boss said county and national government accounts often experience Ifmis connectivity challenges that affect the approval of procurement requests and payments.
“In addition, many suppliers are not conversant with the Ifmis e-procurement module, hence, experience difficulties submitting bids online. This has affected timely procurement of goods and services,” she said.
Further, Odhiambo noted that the system does not support own-source revenue collection by the counties and thus is in need of modification.
The CoB recommended the National Treasury to put in place robust Ifmis capacity and infrastructural support mechanisms for both national and county governments.
“The National Treasury should ensure adequate mechanisms are put in place at the beginning of each financial year to upload procurement plans and budgets into the system to ensure timely implementation of planned activities," she said.
Treasury introduced the automated system for processing of financial transactions to enhance fiscal transparency, accountability and improve efficiency in the public financial management system.
However, the system has been blamed for the mess in financial books.
The Council of Governors through chairman Wycliffe Oparanya has particularly complained the counties don’t get cash on time because the system is malfunctioning.
In March, governors called on the DCI boss George Kinoti to investigate the Ifmis director after the system generated financial statements indicating bizarre expenditure in 11 counties.
Kiambu, for instance, allocated Sh973 million for coordination of State House affairs.
“Governors read mischief in this saga that has raised queries on the safety of Ifmis, which was supposed to bring transparency to financial management,” Oparanya said.
The Kakamega governor said the devolved units have in most cases been unable to pay salaries as well as their suppliers due to late disbursement.
“Frequent collapsing of Ifmis is a serious problem the ministry needs to address to avoid the constant back-and-forth with governors. This needs to be addressed to streamline the flow of funds to counties,” he said.
Edited by R.Wamochie
