APRM • SECOND COUNTRY REVIEW REPORT OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA Procurement Issue 346. During the consultations, the CRM was told that women are awarded contracts in some counties in consonance with the extant laws. The CRM was further informed that the women who get contracts are not local women, but those that are resident in urban centres with web of connections. Also, People Living with Disabilities (PWDs) and youth were hardly considered for the award of contracts in line with the law. That, the complaint of county officials is that local women do not have the capacity in terms of finance, experience, among others, to undertake procurement. Service Delivery 347. The main objective of the budget is to deliver public services effectively and efficiently. Budget transparency and accountability is stressed because it will strengthen government institutions involved in public service delivery (e.g., health, education, water and roads). Participation in economic policy decision-making is to ensure that public goods and services that meet the needs of the people are considered in plan documents and in the annual budget used to execute the development plans. The GoK is concerned about improving the welfare of its people and recognizes the importance of sound financial management of resources for service delivery. Various legal and regulatory frameworks have been instituted to ensure that financial resources are used for the purposes intended. The Government also understands that it must fight corruption so that public resources are not diverted for private use and encumber service delivery. 348. The decentralisation of functions to forty seven (47) counties in 2013 is partly to bring government closer to the people and accordingly promote local democracy. Likewise, devolution is expected to foster competition and promote efficiency in the provision of public goods and services. The CRM was informed during the consultative forums that with devolution, the provision of socio-economic facilities such as roads, education, health care, water and electricity has improved. This is good and laudable. However, the improvements are not without caveats. Education and health care are used for illustrations. The participants at the consultative forums stated that the number of schools built or renovated has increased, leading to enrolment of pupils/students and high teacher/student ratio. In some communities, it is said, the schools do not have adequate teachers. On health care, improvements were with references mainly to: free maternity programme that has reduced maternal mortality rate in the rural areas in particular; and the purchase of some health care scanning machines and equipment. However, it was further disclosed that there is inadequate health care personnel to effectively deliver services. In some of the counties, it was said that intermittent strikes by health workers have been recorded due mainly to the non-payment of salaries. | 161 |