Devolution

Budget Inclusion

The Kenyan government’s devolved system of governance was adopted to foster self-governance by empowering and facilitating communities to participate in their development planning and budgeting and other decisions that affect their lives. Although public involvement is widely practised by county governments, public budgets are inadequate in addressing community needs, especially for special interest groups such as youths. Partially, this is because the participatory structure is limited in access and meaningfulness for young people and other groups to shape the budget to align with their needs. Young people view these inadequacies as injustice.

To address the injustice, a group of over 120 passionate young people from Nandi endeavored to change the status quo. With the technical support of the Open Governance Institute (OGI), these young people drafted and submitted a memorandum containing Alternative Budget Proposals for consideration by their elected representatives in the county assembly. The contained proposals aim to address among others, the social and economic needs of young people in Nandi County, foster transparency and accountability and strengthen the participation of citizens in matters of interest to them.

Throughout the show, Nandi Budget Champions will break down the submission, explain its goals and discuss remedies and available avenues for seeking justice if the County Assembly and the County Executive do not consider the proposals.

Webinar: Strengthening Accountability and Transparency through Public Audits

Transparency and Accountability (TA) are embedded in Kenya’s Public Finance Management (PFM) systems through democratic and participatory governance institutions and processes. The Public Audit process is a constitutional mandate that is designed to strengthen Accountability and Transparency in the management of public resources.

While discharging the public audit mandate, the Office of the Auditor- General (OAG) creates a cross-functional partnership that strengthens the oversight and accountability mechanisms embedded in the management of public finances. The constitution requires, from the Auditor-General, a confirmation to the legislature and citizens, that public funds allocated to the audited public entities be applied efficiently and lawfully and that there exists effective internal controls and risk management systems.

Therefore, Audit Reports generate enormous amounts of evidence, data, information and new knowledge that if utilized, advance the realization of better outcomes from the application of public resources due to increased efficiency and effectiveness of governance systems and processes. The audit process identifies instances of irregular application of public resources and occasions of failure by public entities to provide evidential documentation to support expenditure incurred while in some cases, unearths existence of stalled or incomplete public projects where public resources have been used undeservedly.

In 2021, the Open Governance Institute (OGI) through the support of the Ford Foundation and in collaboration with The Youth Cafe, Peopled Powered and the International Budget Partnership Kenya (IBPK) assessed the audit performance of 11 county governments for the financial years 2017/18 and 2018/19. The assessment reviewed the improvement in Audit Opinions received by the County Governments for the two years under review while the Basis for Audit Opinions, the Auditor’s report on Effectiveness and Lawfulness in the application of public funds and Effectiveness of Internal Controls, Risk Management and Governance were reviewed for 2018/19.

On Thursday, 24th March, OGI will host an online webinar via zoom inviting partners, all stakeholders and citizens. We will Present findings from an assessment of 11 county executives and 11 county assemblies, including the assessment framework, discuss strengths and weaknesses of the audit reports, and gaps in the accountability ecosystem in Kenya then together generate a way forward. There will be panelists from The Office-of-Auditor-General, Senate and other key stakeholders who interact with the county Auditor-General reports to share feedback, take notes and respond to the questions.

There will be interesting and critical findings shared from the assessment report and amazing conversations that anyone interested in prosperity of Kenya and success of devolution should be part of. Join the conversation by registering for this webinar and let’s together step up in efforts of enhancing transparency and accountability in our counties.

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