A Sh500 million project to tighten loopholes in payments, budgeting and procurement transactions in Government has stalled midstream after a technical hitch marred payments last week.
The move raises the possibility of suppliers to government offices not being paid on time, leading to a pile up of unpaid bills that have posed challenges in the past by providing opportunities for fraudulent claims.
The project is already behind schedule and ministries have stopped processing transactions after encountering difficulties. The hitch occurred during the initial stage of managing payments at department level.
“In the last one week we have been unable to make payments. The programme encountered a hitch and is yet to be rectified,” a spokesperson for one of the affected ministries told Business Daily.
Treasury, which is driving the project and hosts the database of all ministries, confirmed the breakdown. On Friday, Treasury confirmed the glitch, saying it was being addressed.
“We expect it to be back soon. We have not totally shut down but operations are slower,” Treasury spokesperson Eunice Muthamia said.
Part of e-government strategy, the computer-based system has so far helped increase transparency and accountability in government through automatic checks, monitoring and reporting. It has also helped reduce the scope for corruption and has largely been billed as a driver for best practices. It has also helped centralise operations like those linked to transfers.
“We have so far managed to streamline financial system across the 34 ministries through the remote system,” added Mrs Muthamia on phone.
Benefits accruing from the project so far include timely payments. “As at the end of the last financial year, those that had not exhausted their budgetary allocations forfeited it. The system automatically shut them out by the midnight of June 30,” Dr Juma Oketch, the secretary for Information and Communication Technology said.
Implementation of the final stages of the project will begin next July with tenders for procurement and budgesting systems being floated. Dr Oketch said it is likely that the affected ministries had not totally complied with the requirements.
“There is need for payment and cash flow plan commitments. We must move with speed now with 100 per cent roll out,” he said on phone. The project is co-funded by the Swedish Development Agency, that is providing for the software, while the UK’s department for International Development (Dfid) are sponsoring the projects’ consultation fees.
World Bank is providing equipment and is helping build technical capacity. The Bank runs similar projects in 27 other developing countries.
Prior to the introduction of the e-procurement later this year, procurement in Government departments was carried out through a manual tendering process.
Currently, government procurement procedures are tedious, requiring a long chain of internal authorizations and scrutiny - at times involving several departments, several visits by suppliers to departments, and the generation of reams of paper-based statements and evaluations. In some cases, up to 42 signatures are required before payment is effected.
The manual tender system was prone to delays, manipulation by cartels and corruption.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Zeddy Sambu
Quelle/Source: Business Daily Africa, 05.05.2008
