- Public Service Commission invites members of the public to share any information about applicants
- New officer holder expected to speed up development of regulations to operationalise COB Act, 2016
Image: FILE
Acting Controller of Budget Stephen Masha is among 15 applicants shortlisted for the post left vacant by Agnes Odhiambo whose term ended last month.
He will compete with William Kipkemboi, Abukar Abdirahman, Margaret Nyakang'o, Elizabeth Mwathi, Abiniza Ogolla, Karen Kandie, Muinde Patrick, Celestine Munda, Justus Nyamunga, James Aloyo and Leonard Rang'ala.
Others who made it to the shortlist are Edith King’ori, Duncan Otieno and Judith Akumu.
The Public Service Commission has invited members of the public with any reservations, or "credible information of interest" about the applicants, to share the same.
“The submissions may be emailed to [email protected] on or before October 7,” Mary Kimonye, Principal Administrative Secretary at the PSC, said.
Memoranda may also be communicated to the recruitment committee via post office or hand-delivered to the commission offices in Nairobi.
The successful candidate will be faced with pending work at the office that monitors usage of public funds.
Before leaving office, Odhiambo cited outstanding issues among them educating the public on roles of the COB and automation of the exchequer requisition process.
The former budget controller in her end of term report called for stronger legal backing to give the office more teeth.
The new leadership is expected to speed up the development of regulations to operationalise the COB Act, 2016 as well as develop a framework for engagement with Parliament and county assemblies.
Odhiambo also vouched for a reward management system and policy, which the office currently lacks, and a stronger complaints handling system.
She also cited the need for review of outstanding policies and manuals, additional office space and a well-defined budget tracking and monitoring tools.
Odhiambo said the challenge of delayed release of funds still remains, a situation she said adversely frustrates development.
She asked Parliament and county assemblies to consider and approve budget revisions in good time for timely implementation of activities to benefit the public.
Late submission of reports was also highlighted as a number of MDAs do not submit financial and non–financial reports by 10th of the month following the end of each quarter.
The Budget Controller further flagged challenges with IFMIS, saying it is not always updated to capture Appropriations-In-Aid (A-I-A) generated by the MDAs and also does not support own-source revenue collection by the counties.
“Therefore, financial reports generated from the system may be incomplete and could lead to overstated expenditure compared to exchequer issues. This affects the accuracy of the reports generated by the OCOB for the MDAs,” she noted.
Another hitch, she said, is transfers to semi-autonomous government agencies being treated as expenditure.
“This accounting treatment is likely to lead to an overstatement of expenditure by the ministries since transferred amounts are programmed and spent by the SAGAs over the year.”
Incoming officers were further urged to check on county pending bills as well as ensure the entities’ wage bill is kept at sustainable levels.
“In order to address this challenge, counties should rationalise their staffing levels to address the escalating personnel emolument costs,” Odhiambo said.
The Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015 caps expenditure on wages and benefits at 35 per cent of a county’s total revenue.
She also recommended that counties be compelled to prepare their budgets within the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) for the period.
Odhiambo warned that failure to approach budgeting from the MTEF perspective is the reason for stalled projects, long outstanding pending bills, unrealistic revenue projections, unrealistic budget proposals and costs.