The Accountant March-April 2016

GOVERNANCE
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
This is because local government
funding and service needs are inherently
bound together and are influenced by
economic, social, demographic and
technological trends. Public service
delivery involves a complex combination
of public and private delivery alternatives.
Devolved governments such as Counties
can therefore create PPP corporations as a
more flexible form of market engagement
They can use the market in a dynamic
framework and contract out and back in as
done in Europe and Portugal in particular,
some years back with significant growth
in municipal corporations which are styled
function entities whose revenues derive
from user fees (not taxes) and which have
independent corporate status.
The other major factor that often
hampers effective performance of County
Governments and related institutions
is ineffective resource mobilization and
poor management of financial resources.
This may due poor planning,, limited
strategic financial management skills and
corruption resulting in extravagant and
unbudgeted expenditure.. Public financial
management entails effective management
of the collection and expenditure of funds.
of financial resources.
The strategic importance of the
development of human resource
capacity, for example was raised at the
African leadership forum held in1990
in Nigeria.. Lack of necessary skills was
seen as a priority to be included in every
development activity in Africa because of
Table1.Finance factor vs Service Delivery in a select County
Factor Count % Ranking
Corruption and theft of funds//resources 552 23.0 1
Lack adequate funds to meet County obligations 462 19.0 2
Misuse of resources, positions, overstaffing, facilities, general etc 430 18.0 3
Inability to collect high user charges, levies and taxes 151 6.0 7
Delays and strict conditions by National government 190 8.0 6
Poor planning, budgeting and coordination 353 15.0 4
Inability to mobilize potential revenue sources 262 11.0 5
Total count/ per cent 2400 100.0
REFERENCES
1. Kenya Public Finance Management Act 2012-Part IV
2. The County Government Act
3. Reforming Local Authorities for Better Service Delivery in
Developing Countries
4. Factors affecting Service Delivery in Local Authorities in
its implication for management and good
governance
The World Bank noted that” the
Africa’s future is in its people .and must
solve its current human development crisis
if it is to claim the 21st century. Africa’s
future economic growth will depend less
on its natural resources, which are getting
depleted fast and are subjected to long run
price decline and more on its human skills
and its ability to accelerate a demographic
transition” (World Bank 2000). This is
truly the case in most of our Counties and
other devolved institutions in Kenya and
needs to be addressed through building
capacity of county officials and staff for
effective administration and management.
Political wrangles in many
counties do affect service
delivery and development
County Assemblies and County executive
continue fighting over funds and projects.
They are not simply bureaucratic edifies;
they are also elected directly by the
citizenship, and party-politics plays an
important role in municipal governance.
Councilors are elected to represent the
citizenship. As political scientists will
testify, “Representation” is a complex
and often difficult activity. Several
consequences flow from this basic fact of
municipalities as polities.
Bureaucracy practices do
affect service delivery by
devolved entities
Kenya- J Z ABUTA
5. Increasing Revenue Streams: & Innovations BY EThekwini
Municipality, Natal,S.A
The writer is a Public Finance Advisor
According to change experts in South
Africa, many municipalities in that nation
have experienced serious difficulties
in adjusting to the “new demarcation
and the new requirements of 1990”
These difficulties are because various
role players (particularly at national
level) are directing diverse, and often
contradiction, mandate and requirement
at municipal governments, at a time
when municipalities are still reeling from
the consequences of restructuring Same
scenario is being witnessed in Kenya as
many County Governors are at war with
National Government officers and this
affects service delivery to the citizens at
the County.
Conclusions
Lack of, or inadequate, finance available
to counties lead to poor services delivery,
lack or minimal development projects,
widespread unemployment and low
living standards by residents. These often
account for many cases of disaffection
by residents with county governments.
One solution is to expand the revenue
base through for instance, identification
of untapped revenue sources, realistic
budgeting processes and the installation
of efficient revenue collection and
management systems .Another is to curb
excessive/unbudgeted spending/wastage,
theft/and corrupt practices rampant
in most counties as shown in a recent
research finding shown below.
By Ritah Munyiva, rjmunyiva@gmail.com
Important
social media
platforms
and their use
Towards the end of the 20th
century, a whole new form of
communication was gripping
the world as the World Wide
Web was taking shape. The use
of e-mail and instant messaging of was
the talk as it made it easy to communicate
globally. With endless numbers of web
sites to navigate, one might have thought
the world had reached the top of the
technological mountain.
Then came the beginnings of web 2.0
whose ability to design a website included
the ability for users to interact with
other users or change the content. It was
the beginning of the social media wave
which today has made it easier to interact,
connect, promote and market our goods or
services.
From fan favorites such as Instagram
and Facebook to newcomers like Google+,
here is a look at most commonly used
social media platforms that help users of
all nature to stay relevant in business not
to mention take advantage of as channels
of communicating.
1. Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg, the
founder of Facebook has continued to
make it easy for billions of people to
find and connect with family and friends
floating around…even those you last
spoke to centuries ago. Every other day,
users are still clicking the ‘be friends with/
follow buttons’. Although Facebook is
mainly centered on sharing photos, links,
and quick thoughts of a personal nature,
individuals can also show their support to
brands or organizations by becoming fans.
2. WhatsApp: With more than 700
million users worldwide, this platform
social media experts rank it just below
Facebook. This simple, send text-style
message has made it easy to communicate
and seems to replace the mobile phone’s
short message service (SMS).
3. Twitter: Apparently social media
experts pass it as the simplest of all social
media platforms. For those who think
they could write a whole story using this
platform, this is the wrong one as messages
here are limited to 140 characters or less.
Well, the 140 words are exclusive of
posting a link, sharing an image or even
trade thoughts with your favorite celebrity
or influencer. Twitter’s interface is easy to
learn and use, and setting up a new profile
only takes minutes.
4. LinkedIn: This is probably the only
mainstream social media site that’s
actually geared towards business, LinkedIn
is to cyberspace what networking groups
once were to local business communities.
It’s great for meeting customers, getting
in touch with vendors, recruiting new
employees, and keeping up with the
latest in business or industry news. If it
matters to your company or career, you can
probably do it on LinkedIn.
5. Google+: This platform combines
the best of Facebook and Twitter into
one site – and backing it by the power of
the world’s largest search engine, Google
giving users a social site that has a little
something for everyone. You can add new
content, highlight topics with hashtags,
and even separate contacts into circles. A
G+ profile only takes a few minutes to get
set up.
6. Tumblr: This platform is different
from many others in that it essentially
hosts microblogs for its users. Individuals
and companies, in turn, can fill their blogs
with multimedia such as images and
short video clips. The fast-paced nature
of Tumblr makes it ideal for memes and
other forms of fun or viral content.
7. Pinterest: This platform has made
a huge impact on social media in the last
few years. It has proved popular among
women and the do-it-yourself crowd, it
lets users share pictures, creative thoughts,
or (especially) before-and-after pictures
of projects that others can pin, save, or
duplicate.
8. YouTube: As a video sharing service,
YouTube has become so popular that its
catalog of billions and billions of videos
has become known as “the world’s secondlargest
search engine” in some circles. The
site boasts of everything from first-person
product reviews to promotional clips and
“how-two” instruction on virtually any
topic or discipline. Users have the ability
to share, rate, and comment on what they
see.
9. Instagram: Looking for a quick,
convenient connection between the
camera feature on your smart phone and all
your social profiles, then Instagram is the
answer. This platform allows users to share
via Twitter, Facebook, and the Instagram
website, choosing from a variety of photo
filters and invite friends to comment on
the photos or ideas.
36 MARCH - APRIL 2016
MARCH - APRIL 2016 37