OPINION: Why sector-based roundtables present fastest way to unlock inter-agency stalemates to give Kenyans value for money, through service

In the pecking order of matters National Budget; including such critical decisions on revenue collection measures and resource allocation formula Parliament, on behalf of the People is King.

In deed Members of Parliament exercise this critical mandate, as a delegated authority from the great People of Kenya, who by dint of article one of the Constitution, are Supreme.

Legislators must therefore take this role very seriously.

It is an obligation which we, as MPs exercise whenever we sit in Departmental Committees to review and approve budgets for the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) under the purview of the respective committees where we serve.

More fundamentally, however, is the critical constitutional mandate that Kenyans have delegated to us as the hawk-eyed guardians of public funds; and that is where our audit committees in Parliament come in.

On Thursday this week – as Chairperson of the National Assembly Public Investments Committee on Commercial Affairs and Energy (PIC CA&E) – I moved a Motion an extremely important Motion.

The Motion was for adoption of the fourth Report of the committee, on its examination of audited financial statements of five State corporations in the energy sector for three Financial running up to FY 2022/23.

The five State corporations were the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC), Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) and the Nuclear Power and Energy Company (NuPEC).

While all these State corporations enjoy some semi-autonomous authority under the Ministry of Energy, they all – in their respective roles – serve to enable Kenya and Kenyans access and meet their daily energy needs!

As we reviewed the audited reports of the respective corporations, we realized that some of the queries raised were cross-cutting and would not be addressed in a timely manner through a broad-based forum, with all key decision makers.

The Committee created a roundtable, bringing together the office of Cabinet Secretary for Energy, the responsible Principal Secretaries, the respective top managements of the State corporations and representatives from the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) and the National Treasury.

Out of the 195 audit queries that had been cumulatively raised across the five State corporations by the (OAG) during the years under review, we were able to resolve 105, leaving only 92 as unresolved.

That is a great a measure of success which had been equally previously demonstrated when we employed the same strategy in review of audited statements for seven State corporations in the Roads and Transport sector; where out of a total of 248 queries, 140 were resolved.

We are due to employ the same strategy as we conclude the review of audited statements for State corporations in the water sector.

The experience of my committee demonstrates the value of this approach in removing unnecessary bottlenecks occasioned by avoidable bureaucracies within government including between State corporations within the same line ministries.

Some of these barriers to service delivery that can be resolved through this strategy include delayed implementation of development projects, weak contract management, stalled infrastructure investments and procurement inefficiencies.

Others are weak internal controls, and poor inter-agency coordination that frequently recur across institutions operating within the same sector, as demonstrated in our past committee reports.

Rather than examining every State corporation in isolation, audit committees should cluster audited entities according to sectors as demonstrated such as Roads and Transport, Energy, Water, Agriculture, Manufacturing, ICT, Financial Services, and Natural Resources etc.

Such clustering enables the committee and indeed the House to interrogate audit findings within the broader policy and operational environment in which these institutions function.

Take the Roads and Transport sector, for example. Roads agencies, ports, railways, airports, urban transport institutions and supporting infrastructure agencies are all implementing interconnected national development programmes.

Many audit findings originate from common challenges such as delayed compensation for compulsory land acquisition, procurement disputes, contractor performance, project financing, environmental compliance and contract variations.

Reviewing these agencies separately often leads to repetitive hearings and fragmented recommendations.

A sector-based review would enable Parliament to identify common governance deficiencies, harmonize recommendations and propose policy reforms capable of addressing the root causes affecting the entire sector.

This applies across all sectors where integrated mandates are conducted by several State corporations.

In so doing, we will not only cure the perennial bureaucracy in Government but give Kenyans value for money by unlocking development hampered by unnecessary bureaucracies.

The writer is the Chairperson of the National Assembly Public Investments Committee on Commercial Affairs and Energy and the MP for Pokot South.