Software hitch that blocked county salaries resolved

What you need to know:

County chiefs said the breakdown had affected payments for crucial services including salaries as well as development projects.
Launched in 2013, IFMIS has received opposition from the county bosses, who have termed it a ploy by the national government to control disbursement and use of devolved funds.

Government payments system Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) has now been restored after being down for close to a week, allowing county governments to pay March salaries.

ICT secretary Joe Mucheru termed the breakdown of the system a teething problem.

Governors said the IFMIS had been off since April 4, disrupting operations in the 47 counties.

“It is working. As we speak it is up and running. That is why we always have a support system. Let them (the county governments) contact us then we will be able to troubleshoot and find out the specific issue,” said the minister.

County chiefs said the breakdown had affected payments for crucial services including salaries as well as development projects.

“The Council of Governors is concerned that the IFMIS system has not worked since Monday, April 3, thus disrupting operations across the 47 county governments,” said governors on the Monday in a statement.

Launched in 2013, IFMIS has received opposition from the county bosses, who have termed it a ploy by the national government to control disbursement and use of devolved funds.

Collapse of the system last year was blamed for grounding development projects and operations in counties.

The governors said they were unable to access funds from their accounts at Central Bank of Kenya to finance operations during the breakdown.

The governors said some counties were forced to take overdrafts from banks and use locally collected revenues to run their offices.

According to a recent inquiry report by the Auditor- General, the system had been marred by technology loopholes, making it prone to abuse and possible loss of public funds. It aided the theft of billion of shillings at the National Youth Service.

The audit revealed that the system has numerous control weaknesses that badly expose it to fraud and misuse, with unidentified users capable of logging in remotely while others have multiple identities in the government’s main financial nerve centre.