Will IFMIS really eliminate corruption?
What you need to know:
- Given that the system is mainly driven by the National Treasury, it may be easier to enforce its use within national government ministries.
- Indeed, in open and transparent environments where public service is considered an opportunity and serving fellow citizens considered an honour, the system would work seamlessly.
A few weeks ago the President launched the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS) with pomp and glamour at the KICC in Nairobi.
IFMIS has been touted as the ultimate cure of our corrupt public financial and procurement system, but is it the silver bullet that will succeed where the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and other agencies seem to have failed?
The IFMIS website proclaims it is an automated system that enhances efficiency in planning, budgeting, procurement, expenditure management and reporting in the national and county governments in Kenya.
Given that the system is mainly driven by the National Treasury, it may be easier to enforce its use within national government ministries. What is not clear is how the system is being enforced at the county levels or even across the parastatal and other government agencies that enjoy some legislative and operational autonomy.
ENFORCING BUDGETARY CONTROL
Specifically, some parastatals or counties may argue that they already have or are in the process of acquiring their own electronic financial and procurement systems. Should they abandon them in favour of IFMIS or should the two systems run in parallel, leading to duplication and accompanied inefficiencies?
But these are just some of the valid challenges for IFMIS. There exist other challenges in the shape of those who seek to cheat the system.
The system has many financial modules. The one for procurement is known as Procure to Pay (P2P) and is supposed to automate several procurement processes including online tendering and award of contracts, online payment initiation and approvals, enforcement of budgetary controls, and financial management.
Indeed, in open and transparent environments where public service is considered an opportunity and serving fellow citizens considered an honour, the system would work seamlessly. But in an environment where public office is considered an opportunity to plunder and “get rich quick”, the automation is often sidestepped without apologies.
KEY IN DOCTORED DATA
One way to sidestep the system is to key into the system procurement data that is already doctored so as to produce a predetermined outcome or winner.
The famous garbage-in-garbage-out mantra is often brought to life in such a manner across many public offices that already have fully functional automated systems.
Another way of beating automated systems is simply to avoid using them. Why would one bother with using the electronic systems to approve and withdraw money when manual options still exist as recently documented by the Auditor-General?
It is clear that the solution to the corruption cancer within our nation is going to need more than just automation. There is an urgent need to revive and embrace the African values of our forefathers: honesty instead of deceit, hard work instead of “get-rich-quick” schemes and of course public service instead of “selfish” service.
Mr Walubengo is a lecturer at the Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT. Twitter:@jwalu
