The directorate of finance and planning is headed by the chief finance officer. It’s composed of finance department and planning unit. It has got a total number of 11(eleven) qualified staff. Also there is a total of 3(support staff.
The major objectives of the directorate are as follows:
Objectives
· Improve upon the collection of revenue from all the resources.
· Improve upon the financial management.
· Monitor district activities both funded by local revenue and conditional grants.
· Establish accounting system both at the district and sub-counties.
· Update the existing inventory of all development projects at all levels.
· To strengthen the NGO forum to ensure linkage and coordinates development planning.
· Training sub-county planning teams to enable them facilitate /train stake holders, so as to formulate comprehensive development plans.
Priorities of the directorate
• Training of staff in the directorate of finance and planning.
• Procurement of transport and computer to improve on the delivery of services efficiently.
• Establishment of a computerized accounting system at the district.
• Capacity building in development planning.
• Data information management system.
• Training in population related factors.
• Monitoring and evaluation.
Achievements
• The sub-county technical staff and political leaders have been trained in decentralized development planning.
• The necessary books of accounts have been been procured to improve upon financial management both at the district and sub-counties.
• There has been recruiting exercise in the sub-treasuries at sub-counties so as to improve the efficiency in the financial management.
• The staffs in the accounts section have been inducted in the maintenance of books of accounts and there is remarkable improvement in that, our sub-counties are processing final accounts.
• Sub-counties have been guided on the formulation of sub-county investment plans, budgets and identification of projects.
• The directorate put in place minimum conditions for assessing the LGDP, which is yet to be implemented.
• The directorate put in place a charging policy, which is now in use.
Constraints
• Lack of transport to monitor and supervise the local revenue collection.
• Limited sources of revenue hence leading to a small resource envelope for the district.
• Limited awareness among the local communities on the relevance of paying taxes.
• Unfavorable political environment at the lower councils leading to failure to mobilize resources.
Strategies
• There is need to procure a double cabin and a motorcycle to facilitate the department in executing the activities effectively.
• There is need to intensify the awareness campaign at lower levels so as to improve upon the collection of local revenue and implementation of programmes geared towards building capacity in project management, maintenance and planning and resource utilization.