The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) is seeking collaboration with county governments and assemblies with a view to professionalising financial resource management.
According to the institute, hope for the success of devolution lies in having professionals appointed in key economic and revenue departments to ensure every shilling of taxpayers’ money is prudently spent.
ICPAK Council Member FCPA Georgina Malombe said devolution remained a key anchor for bringing development closer to the people, and as such, it was crucial to have proper accountability structures put in place to curb corruption and seal loopholes in revenue loss.
Speaking in Embu Thursday after meeting with the Deputy Governor Kinyua Mugo and Assembly Speaker Josiah Thiriku in pursuit of collaboration, Ms. Malombe said several milestones in terms of financial prudence had been progressively achieved since the advent of devolution 10 years ago.
She, however, said there was a lot of ground to be covered to achieve full accountability, and that was why the institute was seeking partnerships with the devolved units to assist them in ensuring finance departments were run by credible personnel.
The council member said they also want to build capacity in the business community in terms of business and personal financial management in order to enable them to make sound financial decisions.
She reported that they had been to several counties, including Kisumu, Samburu, and Kisii, and had already entered into collaboration with some.
Deputy Governor Kinyua Mugo lauded the move, saying embracing professionalism in public financial management would greatly enhance service delivery to citizens.
He said due to poor systems in public resource management and utilisation under the former regime, they have been left grappling with pending bills amounting to Sh2.2 billion, some of which were fake or lacked supporting documents.
The DG said they would also ensure that all accountants in the county were registered with the professional body and that capacity was built accordingly to improve their work.
He said another area of collaboration they explored was in research, where they could greatly benefit from knowledge on how to streamline and increase their own revenue collection.
Kinyua also said they would engage the body whenever they were holding taskforce meetings and other committee meetings where money matters were involved.
By Samuel Waititu
