ACCOUNTABILITY

1. ACCOUNTABILITY BY FINANCE OFFICER

2. Definitions • Accountability is the obligation of an individual or organization to account for its activities, accept responsibility for them, and to disclose the results in a transparent manner. • Liable to being called to account; answerable (Being liable to God and humanity). • As a family of Presbyterian church of East Africa we are entrusted with the society’s most important functions—uplifting our souls, educating our minds, and protecting our health and safety & Mission work. • The evidence is the enormous resources the society devotes to our church & institutions.

3. There are 5 dimensional approach to accountability in our case • To the church members as key stakeholders. • Reports to our church courts, committees or boards. • Govt-Comply with the host county regulations e.g. taxation by Kenya Revenue Authority,. • To our donors/partners who have supported the projects. • For the institutions & presbyteries to the head office- for Monitoring &Evaluating.

4. Types of accountability • Political –The President and his Deputy are accountable to the wananchi” .every five years we have new election. PCEA every 3 years and 6 years. • Ethical- growth of professional associations e.g. ICPAK,LSK. • Administrative –within an organization e.g. FO reports to Secretary General • Public/Private organizations- corporate social responsibility e.g. Equity bank/master cards scholarship, government cash transfer to elderly, safaricom -Kenyan for Kenyan initiative in Turkana to provide food during famine. • Accounting for Donor funds.

5. Accountability at organization level We are asking the public to measure our organization performance using the stated vision, mission and values – also the organizational culture. All PCEA institutions should align their activities towards : VISION: • To be a Great and Dynamic Godly Model Church for holistic service in pursuance of the Great Commission”. MISSION: • To empower, equip, build and transform God’s people for effective service through preaching, teaching and witnessing in words and deeds.

6. Areas that help to improve accountability • Corporate governance – role of the board and senior management(courts and committees of the church). • Service charter – to show people our commitment to deliver services in a satisfactory & efficient manner. • Human Resource Management – building their capacity for greater productivity while ensuring economic use of the resources.(performance management & team work). Don’t pay excess salaries to executives • Budgets – both annual, reforecast and project budgeting –ensuring we adhere to them. No major variations should be allowed. Remember to include inflation rate. • Compliance – Ensure we comply with the existing laws and regulations of the host country e.g. Annual returns to the registrar of societies, NGO Coordination Board, KRA,OIG –USA ,Charitable Trust in UK etc. • Management /donor progress report – e.g. quarterly, semi annually and annual. Both financial and narrative reports. PCEA head office needs to be involved in monitoring & Evaluations and where necessary give guidance as per its policies and priorities outlined in the church corporate strategic plan.

7. Reports by our various Agencies • Donor reports – narrative and financial reports which may be quarterly, semi annual, annual and at the project completion- do we comply and is there set standards? • Head Office –must ensure that all projects conform to the PCEA corporate strategic plan- do we give our priority areas e.g. in the next 3 years? Which sectors to put more efforts to? • Government of Kenya – Annual returns to KRA which must include audited accounts, registrar of societies ,NGO Board. – remember it is the responsibility of the board members to comply with the law and now under the new finance Act 2013 they can be personally held accountable incase of tax evasion/non compliance with the law. • REMEMBER THAT IF ONE PCEA PROJECT FAILS –THE GOVT,DONOR,SOCIETY WILL VEIW IT AS WHOLE PCEA.WE NEED TO SAFEGUARD OUR NAME.

8. FINANCIAL REPORTING • The annual audited accounts must include: • Director/Trustee report – it states clearly that it responsibilities of trustees to prepare the financial statements. • Balance sheet –showing assets and liabilities • Income & Expenditure / fund accountability statement -showing incomes and how the funds have been utilized. • Cash flow statement –showing the movement of cash and cash equivalent over the year. • Audit report – auditors only give an opinion. • Ratio analysis – give insight into the manner of organizational operation e.g. current assets ratio, debts to equity, percentages expenditures to the budgets.

9. Project monitoring & Evaluation • Project management is the planning, scheduling(work plans &action plans), monitoring and evaluating of project activities. • At the beginning of a project you must set goals which are SMART • You need to provide for indicators in the following areas: • Input, • Output. • Outcome • Target. • Goal. • Objectives & strategies.

10. Project monitoring & Evaluation • Balance score card • The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organization performance against strategic goals. It was originated by Drs. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and David Norton as a performance measurement framework that added strategic non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers and executives a more 'balanced' view of organizational performance.

11. Compliance areas: • Ensure you an agreement/MOU between the institution and the donor from the beginning of the project on how the money will spent and what is expected of you from the donor and timeframe of the reports. • Procurement procedures must be adhered to – We are public institutions and must comply with Public Procurement Oversight Authority rules. • Projects must be audited annually and before the close the project and reports forwarded to head office and donor. • Ensure value for money. • Lately donor organizations are moving towards Payment by Results(PbR) e.g. DFID,USAID. • Work plans and actions must be well designed to facilitate implementation. • Project Finance manuals/guidelines.