Development Partnership Forum
29 November 2010
Statement on the Twelve Commitments
by Johannes Zutt, World Bank Country Director and DCG Co-Chair,
on behalf of the Development Partners
In closing the last meeting of the Development Partnership Forum (DPF), in May, the
Prime Minister committed the Government of Kenya to achieving 12 actions which we—
the Government and the Development Partners—deemed to be important steps forward in
developing Kenya. Over the intervening six months, these twelve commitments have
helped us to focus on these important steps and to make progress in completing them. We
appreciate the Government’s detailed assessment of progress to date. That assessment,
which builds on the review undertaken at our technical meeting last Monday, shows that
four of the commitments were achieved; six significantly advanced; but two not advanced
very much at all. Using a very simple scoring system (no marks for limited progress, half
of a mark for significant progress, and a full mark for achievement), we get a score of
seven out of twelve.
Overall, seven out of twelve is a good start, particularly in light of the Government effort
simultaneously to hold a peaceful referendum on the new constitution and to initiate the
legislative work required for its implementation. We recognize too that this exercise,
which was not among the twelve commitments, is clearly the most important one that the
Government faces today, and we commend the Government for its progress to date.
Turning to those actions that were among the twelve commitments, we would like
particularly to recognize the completed actions related to presenting a costed
implementation plan for the new constitution [Commitment 9], passing the Companies
and Insolvency bills through the Cabinet [and parliament] [Commitment 4], finalizing the
public sector transformation plan [Commitment 11], and organizing ourselves in a way
that will enable scaled-up investment in water harvesting and water storage infrastructure
[Commitment 7]. In the latter case, of course, we had an easy win: the commitment
involved simply holding a meeting, and much remains much to do to expand investments
in water storage infrastructure in the future. That said, these four actions, as written, have
been completed, and we can now retire them from our joint list.
But as Development Partners, we also recognize that that leaves eight actions that have not
been completed. These outstanding actions remain important to Kenya, and we will
continue to monitor progress in achieving them. Since May, we have come to appreciate
the complexity involved in relaunching the Integrated Financial Management Information
System (IFMIS) [Commitment 3], and we appreciate the considerable Government action
taken to date. But we also wish to reiterate the critical importance of this particular action.
Implementing the additional modules needed to establish IFMIS as a control framework
must remain a key objective of this partnership, and it will continue to require a strong
focus, for years to come. It will also require significant technical assistance, which many
of us on the development partner side would be pleased to fund.
In addition to the unfinished work on IFMIS, the twelve commitments included two that
focused on ensuring the comprehensiveness of the budget, (i) by bringing onto the budget
development partner assistance that is currently off-budget (and here the development
partners have a clear role to play) [Commitment 1] and also (ii) by bringing onto the
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budget the finances of budget-dependent entities and local authorities—which we at the
World Bank estimate to be about 10% of the budget [Commitment 2]. These remain
important actions, as they will help to increase transparency and accountability in public
spending, and also provide a basis for a dialogue between the Government and its partners
about budgetary allocations and possible future support from the partners. Because this
area remains critically important, we welcome the Government’s agreement to include
preparing the new Public Financial Management strategy and law as a new commitment
going forward.
As I said a few moments ago, we as Kenya’s Development Partners will continue to
monitor progress in implementing the other five outstanding actions as well. We continue
to believe that it is vitally important to Kenya’s future to protect and rehabilitate its water
catchment areas [Commitment 6] and to transfer water assets to the Water Service Boards
[Commitment 8] so that lease fee payments are no longer a drag on needed investments
in the water sector. We are also looking forward to the presentation to parliament of a bill
that will establish an independent policy oversight authority [Commitment 10] and to
further work on developing a unified governance action plan [Commitment 12].
From our perspective, perhaps the most disappointing performance since May 2010 has
involved the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) [Commitment 5]. As
Development Partners, we are concerned that there has not yet been sufficient action taken
in response to PWC’s December 2009 investigation into NCPB’s implementation of the
subsidized maize scheme in 2008-09. You will recall that the PWC report found that the
scheme was exploited for financial gain from inception; that millers were not required to
account for the maize obtained or to pass on the resulting subsidy to consumers (so that
millers captured most of the benefits from the subsidy); and that traders—who were not
supposed to access maize under the scheme—acquired a quarter of the stock released and
sold that stock to millers for “facilitation payments” (thereby also capturing benefits).
We continue to believe that meaningful action to account for past abuses and also to
prevent future abuses is absolutely necessary. We continue to await strong Government
action to address these issues, which might include (i) separating NCPB’s commercial
functions from its social functions and (ii) publishing all NCPB stocks, purchases, and
sales, as well as the names and contact details of associated sellers and buyers on the
internet on a daily basis, such that NCPB will provide much more transparency about its
dealings.
I said earlier that we agreed to retire four commitments, and also agreed to introduce a
new commitment related to preparing the new Public Financial Management strategy and
law. In addition, we welcome the Government’s agreement to adding three other new
commitments, focused on (i) implementing the constitution in accordance with the spirit—
and the deadlines—included in that document; (ii) preparing a gender-based affirmative
action plan; and (iii) disclosing and taking action on the forensic audit that was recently
completed in the education sector. We agree with the Government that these actions,
together with the eight other items that we continue to monitor, belong at the top of the
agenda of the partnership at this point in time, and we look forward to working with the
Government to get them achieved in the period until our next meeting, in April or May
2011.
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