IFMIS Rolls Out To Counties: Will Thieving Stop or Go High-tech?

The looting of public resources continues. Looters of public resources continue to roam freely, in big tinted cars, bought from our looted taxes.

Some arrests have been made, all in the name of ‘fighting’ corruption but in the real sense, they are in the name of ‘public relations’, arresting for the camera and continuing to loot behind the scenes.

During the first known scandal to rock the National Youth Service, (NYS), the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS) was blamed to have been at the center of the loot.

It is said that those who looted public funds from NYS then, tampered with the IFMIS passwords and ‘legally’ looted this country dry.

IFMIS was meant to enhance transparency in all government procurement and transactions but instead, it has become a tool where government officials ‘steal legally’.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed the Ministry of ICT to put in place all the mechanisms that will enable the creation of the internet connectivity for all the 47 counties so that they can be connected to the IFMIS system.

According to the Head of State, the use of IFMIS will create efficiency and contribute to transparency, necessary for the protection of public resources from being misused.

The primary goal of IFMIS was to enhance transparency in government operations and transparency. However, since the system has been turned into a thieving tool, the government should have first worked towards closing all the loopholes that government officials are using to loot public funds through IFMIS.

More than 80 percent of the looting of public resources has been done through IFMIS. The truth is, IFMIS is not going to stop looters from looting this country and we should not keep all our faith in the system.

The IFMIS system has failed us several times. Let us know that the system might be good but if those handling it are rotten, we will never harvest the best out of it.