The upcoming upgrade of the Treasury’s procurement and payments system should be done properly to seal all the loopholes that crooks have exploited to steal taxpayers’ money over the years.
The Treasury must get it right to tame runaway graft in State corporations and agencies.
The upcoming upgrade of the Treasury’s procurement and payments system should be done properly to seal all the loopholes that crooks have exploited to steal taxpayers’ money over the years.
The Treasury must get it right to tame runaway graft in State corporations and agencies.
The Integrated Financial Management (Ifmis) is the nerve centre of public tenders and payments as well as national planning.
Technically it is the platform through which government runs national finances, from planning through budgeting to procurement, payment, accounting and reporting. It guides the reporting by the office of the Controller of Budget (CoB) on how and what tax resources are spent nationally and in the counties.
Additionally, it feeds into the Auditor-General’s review and audit of national and county accounts. This means that interference with the Ifmis affects planning and distribution of resources as well tracking the usage of public funds.
When Ifmis was launched in 2014, it was promoted as a game-changer, with the State in January 2019 even opting to migrate all its public tenders and procurement transactions on the electronic platform. Some rogue officials, however, quickly learned their way round the system and started to manipulate transactions and payments.
Past technical audits of the Ifmis have detailed these loopholes and we hope the Treasury will address all of them in its upcoming upgrade, which mainly targets full automation.
Automation comes with the benefits of reducing human interaction, which has proved a catalyst of corruption. It also brings efficiency in tracking transactions in real time, thus discouraging interference and manipulation by rogue officials.
The State should stay committed to the course of reforming the tenders and payments system to prevent theft both at the national and county level. Public resources should benefit all Kenyans and not just a few individuals who take advantage of their privileged positions or corrupt networks to make a killing.
Cartels will definitely try to sabotage the upgrade of the Ifmis hence those mandated with implementing the project must stay awoke.
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