Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) will develop innovation hubs across all the 290 constituencies in the country.
The Ministry will in 2018/19 financial year ensure requisite infrastructure was in place at each constituency level to give Kenyans opportunity to not only access internet, but also work and provide online services.
Speaking Friday during a performance contracting meeting for the ministry, ICT Principal Secretary Jerome Ochieng said they will also expand on the Ajira project that empowers the youth to do online jobs and add value to the public.
Ajira is an online digital programme rolled out by the ministry to encourage the youth to take up online career and earn a living.
“The significance of this vetting meeting is to make sure we are committed in doing what we have planned in the course of the year, within our performance contract framework by carrying out all our core activities,” he said.
Ochieng noted that as a ministry they would come up with concrete plans that will offer guidance and give them the drive and push to be able to deliver in all their activities.
The PS said the government had consolidated the procurement of all ICT equipment adding all state corporations and Kenya News Agency should be making their budgets and requirements in order to be facilitated soon.
The Principal Administration Secretary office in the president and in charge of Performance Contracting Steve Ndele said the vetting process started last week and will cover all the ministries until June 29.
“We are meeting all the Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and their teams to discuss their performance contracts in the financial year 2018/19 starting on the July1,” he said.
The meetings, he explained, will come up with specific indicators and targets to be achieved by the ministries within the coming year based on their procurement plans, budgets and strategic plans
“We will ensure through discussions that the negotiated indicators are in harmony with targeted performance, assign responsibility of specific targets and by which date they should be complete based on agreements,” he said.
This will in turn help during evaluation and confirmation exercise that the promises made to the president are done and achieved.
After evaluation, Ndele said the best performing ministry will be awarded for achieving the deliverables, and for those who would not achieve would consequently be held accountable for what they promised and not fulfilled.
“There are 22 ministries including the Attorney General office and we rank them from number 1 to last,” Ndele said, confirming that an award would be set by public service such as salary increment for the staff or direct cash award.
Ndele confirmed that the contract performance vetting is not only limited to ministries but will also be done with the state corporations including the 47 counties.
The government wants to see the value for money since resources used are tax revenue from Kenyans, he added.
Performance Contracting is a process that seeks to enhance service delivery in government ministries, departments and agencies, in order to make them more accountable and enhance prudent use of resources in provision of quality services to citizens.
By Wangari Ndirangu
Ministry ICT committed in delivering on its programmes for this year
