County Treasury, Economic Planning, Special Programmes, ICT & e-Government 2023-08-13T21:53:39+03:00

Finance & Economic Planning

Officials

The Ministry of Finance & Economic Planning is one of the 10 ministries in the County. It plays a pivotal role in the coordination of development planning, mobilization of public resources and ensuring effective accountability of resources used for the benefit of the County.

The ministry derives its mandate from the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and other related subordinate laws, including Public Management Finance Act 2012, County Government Public Finance Management Transition Act 2013 and County Government Act 2012. It is responsible for finance and economic planning of the County.

It coordinates the County Government ministries and departments in the preparation of the annual County budget. It is the responsibility of the department to initiate and guide all sectors in the preparation of their budgets. The department also provides accounting, auditing, revenue collection and procurement services. The ministry’s focus is categorized into seven broad areas defined as units, namely Internal Audit, Procurement, Treasury, Revenue, Economic Planning, Budgeting, Special program and Disaster Management. Each unit is headed by a director.

Mission

To mobilize resources, ensure prudent management of resources and provide leadership in development planning and tracking of results.

Mandate

To mobilize resources, ensure prudent management of resources and provide leadership in development planning and tracking of results.

The mandate of the County Finance and Economic Planning Department entails giving technical support and guiding other departments in financial and economic planning. The CEC member provides leadership and strategic policy direction, while the Chief Officer manages and coordinates all activities of the department. He is also the accounting and authorized officer of the department.

Departments

The department of finance was able to comply with PFM act 2012, Efficient in service delivery through prudency in utilization of public funds, achieved a reduction in Audit Query, decline in clients complains mainly because payment of invoices days dropped from 40 day to 25 days, fast and easy systemized transactions and quick release of funds to departments,  quality financial statements and reports while improving debt management and enriched and satisfactory staff capacity on planning, budgeting and research activities.

Enhanced economic policy formulation which accelerated implementation of development projects in the county. Mandera county government is now in a position to produce all its statutory planning documents on time. The department produced CIDP 2013-2017, CIDP 2018-2022, nine subsequent Annual Development Plans ,first generation county indicator handbook for CIDP 2018-2022, Improved implementation of programmes, projects and strategies; This is mainly achieved through a well-informed evidence based policies. The department produces annual progress report APR that evaluates the performance of every department as well as compliance with the CIDP.

  • Improved research and development by maintaining accurate and reliable data for county planning. for example the first generation county statistical profile 2013-2018,quarterly,half year and annual budget implementation reports and midterm review of the CIDP.
  • In addition to managing and coordinating the planning process, the Economic Planning Department is responsible for ensuring sectors and sector staffs have the capacity to plan. Where national computerized planning and monitoring systems are in use (like E-NIMES) the Economic Planning Department ensures relevant sector staff can use the system and that planning data is entered accurately and on a timely basis
  • Supports departments to practice M&E. Develop capacity, processes and tools. Support departmental learning initiatives; monitoring and evaluation policy, bill and E-CIMES
  • Supports departments to report, Develops capacity, processes and tools. Manages reporting process

ICT & E-Government is one of the five departments in the ministry of finance. It has two directorates: the directorate of ICT and the directorate of e-government. The ICT directorate is a support entity whose main function is to support the day to day ICT related activities in the county. The directorate of e-government is tasked with the county branding and communication with external stakeholders. It ensures prudent utilization and effective and efficient delivery of e-services through online platforms.

The department has tremendously improved for the last two years. Various projects were undertaken and table 1 below summarizes the projects undertaken in Financial Years 2013-2021.

ICT Projects Undertaken from 2013-2021

Project NameFinancial Year
Purchase of Printers2013-2014
Installation of CCTV camera at Geneva offices2013-2014
Purchase of computers, Printers and other accessories2014-2015
Purchase of Licenses for Windows and MS Office2014-2015
Purchase of computers, printers and other accessories2015-2016
Installation of Masts at Geneva, Water and Works2015-2016
LAN Cabling at Public Works offices2017-2018
CCTV Installations at the Governor’s Office2017-2018
LAN cabling at new offices and fiber connection at public works and water2019-2020
Website Development2019-2020
Purchase Of Computers, Laptops and Printers2019-2020
Recruitment of 15 new staff2020-2021
Installation Of Video Conferencing System At Governor’s Office2020-2021
GIS Mapping System2020-2021
Purchase of antivirus Kaspersky endpoint 11 for 300 users2020-2021
Operationalization of Ajira Project2020-2021

Core objectives

  • Use of e services to improve service delivery
  • To enhance better communication with internal and external stakeholders
  • To provide day to day ICT support services for Mandera county government
  • To automate and digitize all county government services, assets and operations.

Challenges and Recommendations

The following summarizes the challenges of the department:

  1. Lack of reliable internet and network connectivity

Mandera County faces challenges with network connectivity due to  rampant  fiber  cut.  There  is no redundant link as all the internet service providers are using the same infrastructure i.e National optic fiber backbone interconnectivity (NOFBI).

      2.  Budgetary Constraints

Although the budgetary allocations for the de- partment has greatly improved, there is still a long way to go considering the recommended allocation required by ICTA

      3. Staff training needs

Although the newly recruited staff have been inducted and trained, they require more training as ICT technology is changing by day. Once again the budget has to be increased especial- ly on the staff training.

      4. LAN cabling at the sub counties

Most of the newly constructed offices in the sub counties don’t have a functioning Local Area Network and internet connectivity.

Automation of Revenue Streams

The department of Revenue Services initiated the digitalization of Revenue Streams by adopting an ICT based revenue collection system. The department moved from the use of manual cash collection to the use of Point of Sale machine with an automated receipt being issued at point of collection. The County had adopted differentiation strategies in its revenue collection role. Among them included the remittance of cash to the nearest bank and not to the cash offices. Equally ad- opted is the remittance of cash through M-pesa payment either by cash up through P.O.S Machine or by Pay bill Number.  This has improved on controls on management of cash.

Decentralization of Own Source Revenue Streams

 The department of Revenue services has embarked on decentralization of revenue services to county departments. Through a meeting held on 14th January 2020, H.E the Governor directed the decentralization of Own Source Revenue Mobilization to respective county departments. This will not only raise local revenue, it has also the potential to improve and widen tax base, foster accountability and ownership among departments and communities.

The department, via CEC Finance and Economic planning addressed a memo to the county departmental heads for a consultative process to take over their respective roles and mode of enhancing their roles to meet their annual target.

P.O. S Machine distribution

The department acquired 200 Point of Sale Machines for revenue automation and mobilization. All collections and receipt payments are done through POS machine. This is a tabulated summary of the P.O.S distribution according to Sector and sub-county.

Table 1: Summary of POS distribution and staff by Sub-County

Summary of POS distribution

Sub CountyNO of POS MachinesNO of Staff
1. Mandera East3541
2. Mandera South1916
3. Mandera North813
4. Mandera West67
5. Banisa65
6. Lafey46
7. Kutulo69
Total8497

There is still shortage of personnel for effective mobilization of local revenue. To fill the establishment gap ECDE teachers were deployed to the department as Revenue clerks since December 2019.Upon expiry of their contract and their performance appraised, the department absorbed the officers as revenue clerks.

Key Revenue Streams that improved upon automation of Revenue Services

The following streams improved due to automation and digitalization of systems and enforcement of compliance in the county.

  1. Land rents
  2. Plot Transfers/Sub-Divisions/Application Fees
  3. Building Plan Approval
  4. Single Business Permit
  5. Markets stalls

Own Source Revenue performance trend

The table below shows revenue performance trend for Mandera County; the recent improvement is mainly attributed to automation of revenue services.

Table 2: Summary of Revenue Performance Trend

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COUNTY FISCAL STRATEGY PAPER 2017 524.92 KB 46 downloads

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Budget Circular 2018 208.10 KB 26 downloads

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Budget Guideline 2018 324.57 KB 27 downloads

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Approved Budget 2018-2019 901.69 KB 68 downloads

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