To gain sustainable competitive edge, especially in this period of global economic mess, a country has to leverage technology in a big way. This is what the Obama administration knows and is doing. They are aware of the power and catalytic effect that ICT has to other sectors of the economy and in this realization, they are pumping a whooping US$ 71 Billion on IT in addition to appointing the first federal CIO in the person of Vivek Kundra to control this massive budget. Kundra’s main responsibilities will be to manage technology interoperability among agencies that will make the government transparent and efficient.
It is this sort of commitment that makes IT work, where a solid investment is made and mapped to a specific measurable outcome. In East Africa, we have never really seen this kind of commitment to investing properly in IT and yet we expect technology to work for us. Having worked with various government departments in the region, requested budgets are normally cut by more than 50% without due consideration of the kind of impact that this may have on the proposed projects. This is one of the reasons why many government initiatives never see the light of day.
For starters, just look at the budgetary allocations that IT has been receiving from the exchequer in the past years. I think in the Kenyan context, last year could have as well be know as the IT bumper harvest, the sector received what is the largest ever allocation, KSh 1 billion. This is thanks to the persistence of one Dr. Bitange Ndemo and the architects of the East African Marine System (TEAMS). That cash went to underwrite the commissioning of the feasibility study of the East African Marine System (TEAMS).
I did not get a chance to participate in the pre-budget hearing for the sector this year, however, I have some documents that have indicative figures that have been put forth by the Ministry of Information and Communication for consideration in the 2009/2010 budget estimates. My suspicion is, these figures are indicative of the region, given that Kenya is the largest economy in the region.
Under the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) 2009/10 – 2011/12, ICT falls in the Research, Innovation and Technology sector. This sector is made up of two ministries, Ministry of Higher education and Technology and the Ministry of Information and Communication together with thirty-three semi-autonomous government agencies including the Government IT Services, Directorate of e-Government and the Kenya ICT Board.
Total requirement for the sector in 2009/10 amounts to KShs. 92.4 billion up from Kshs.45.6 billion in FY2008/09. These comprise of KShs.53.4 billion required for financing recurrent expenditures while KShs.37.9 billion will be required for development expenditures. This budget financed from external resources and internally generated revenue from the institutions to the tune of KShs.10.9 billion leaving a net of 81.4 billion to be financed through the exchequer. However, the Government allocation to the Sector is only KSh 37.5 billion, less than 50% of the sector requirements.
If you dig into the numbers you realize that the core IT budget is about 24.3 billion, 50% of which is recurrent expenditure. Looking at it closer, you get to realize that most of the development allocation (10 billion) goes to a sub-programme titled, Data Management with 9 billion allocated to statistical management system. Then you start to see the gaps. 24 billion, less 10 billion for a statistical managemnt system, less 9 billion for infrastructure, less another 4 billion for training and your are left with 1 billion for everything else outside those areas. As if this is not complicated enough, the sector will only receive 50% of this allocation.
We certainly need to get serious and do things right. Under-budgeting is a sure way of having white elephants in the name of stalled projects which in itself is a waste of resources. So lets start by scoping what we really need and that can be accomplished with the available resources. I would strongly advise that we should not get into any new projects if we do not have the necessary budgetary allocations. Trying to implement a 10 billion project with 5 billion will not have the desired effect, so lets get real.
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