- In Slovakia, the system was successful due to the political goodwill of the county to implement it.
- IFMIS has immense potential to transform the public financial management at both levels of government if appropriately utilized.
Image: WILFRED NYANGARESI
The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) has cited a lack of political goodwill as a major setback for the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS).
In submissions to the Senate Committee on Finance and Budget chaired by Kirinyaga senator Charles Kibiru, ICPAK said there has been resistance from users, perceived sabotage, and deliberate disregard of control mechanisms, particularly by the political class.
“A functioning IFMIS in Malawi did not deliver because of a lack of political commitment,” ICPAK stated.
The institute added that in Slovakia, the system was successful due to the political goodwill of the county to implement it.
“This was made possible by the country coming up with good strategies on how to implement the system and put a time frame to achieve that. It’s said that Slovakia defined the need, came up with the tools to be used, defined the system, acquired it, tested, configured and switched-on time in the beginning of the year,” ICPAK said.
“This was efficient enough to pay for the investment in less than nine months of its operation.”
The institute said it came to the conclusion there was lack of political good will in Kenya after it collated the views of accountants, who are critical players in the implementation of IFMIS.
IFMIS is a system of disbursing funds that seeks to enhance accountability and transparency at both the national and county levels of government
Implementation of IFMIS was also considered a very efficient tool in the fight against corruption due to an increased risk of detection of graft.
ICPAK added that there is need to strengthen the approval role of the Controller of Budget and the oversight role of the internal audit function, audit committees, and the County Assembly in the implementation of IFMIS.
ICPAK said various studies have shown that IFMIS has a significant impact on reduction of fraud and corruption and to a large extent improved transparency and accountability of county payments.
“In spite of the benefits that IFMIS has brought about to the public finance system, there are still some weaknesses that have impaired its implementation,” it reiterated.
“IFMIS has immense potential to transform the public financial management at both levels of government if appropriately utilised. Kenya has taken great steps towards the attainment of this. However, more still needs to be done”
ICPAK added that the system has also been hampered by poor/no Internet connectivity in many areas across the country.
If further added that there is a shortage of skilled managers and staff to run IFMIS and lack of continuous capacity building for users of the system.
“There is need to recruit a qualified accountant with expertise in both public and private accounting system and also recruit skilled county IT experts to assist with servers both at the county headquarters and sub counties,” it recommended.
It further said the users of IFMIS should be identified and continuously helped to improve their level of knowledge on the system and trained from time to time on how to get the best from it.
“Training and capacity building should be a continuous and permanent process,” added the institute.