Public Sector Governance and Accountability Series: Budgeting and ...

Country Case Study: Kenya 495
Like Kenya, governments face similar challenges in implementing reforms
such as an IFMIS, program budgeting, and new charts of accounts. Reforms
like these that are systemwide and require the participation of a range of
officials in getting details right rarely succeed unless managed as a changemanagement
process, with consistent training and implementation backup.
Institutionalizing IFMIS at the core of the government’s financial management
is a huge outstanding challenge for the Ministry of Finance and an urgent one.
Significant problems in budget execution can be addressed through the
systematic, supported implementation of an IFMIS.
Publishing quarterly reports
The Ministry of Finance publishes a quarterly progress report that provides
comprehensive information on budget implementation. Although the accuracy
of these reports is not always guaranteed because of late reporting and
nonreporting by spending ministries, difficulties in sourcing information
from donors on the development budget, and doubts about the accuracy
of information, their institutionalization as an important public source of
information in the Kenyan system significantly improves the transparency
of the public finances. The reports provide information on the overall fiscal
balance; revenue collection; government expenditure (broken down by significant
categories of spending, including spending on core poverty programs);
the stock of pending bills; contingent liabilities; and debt.
Using public expenditure tracking surveys
Kenya has only recently started to institutionalize public expenditure tracking
surveys (PETSs). As in many other developing countries, social outcomes
do not correspond with rising spending on social services. Kenya has made
considerable progress in introducing reforms to planning and budget preparation
to improve the allocation of resources to priorities. It has also more
recently started to look at reforms in budget execution, accounting, reporting,
and monitoring systems to ensure a better link between the budget and
implementation. However, increases in funding will not necessarily translate
into improvements in the delivery of basic services, even if the funds
are disbursed. A PETS is a useful instrument for tracking how funds are
transferred and used right down to the location of service delivery. The first
Kenyan PETS was undertaken in 2003/04, by the Kenya Institute for Public
Policy Research and Analysis, an arm’s length research institution. This first
study looked at the core social service ministries of education, health,
and agriculture and sourced information from ministry headquarters to the
districts, divisions, and facilities on the ground. Random samples were