sophistication

FIGURE 1.3

Asset management plans with growing scope and deepening sophistication

Interim AM plan

Basic AM plan

Advanced AM plan • Setting up framework, adopting strategy, plans • Collecting basic information and inventory

• Framework, strategy, plans, and procedures adopted • Basic systems operational, registers populated, recording of asset conditions ongoing

• Integrated and automated AM system • AM plan is lined to IFMIS, budgeting, performance measurement, and long-term planning

• Fully integrated AM system is operational with ISO certificate and • Used as a core tool for asset operation and development

ISO-certified AM plan

Source: Nairobi City County Government. For more detail, see appendix C. Note: AM = asset management; IFMIS = integrated financial management information system; ISO = International Organization for Standardization.

framework and assignment of responsibilities, establishing initial asset inventories and later a reliable central asset register and technical registers in service entities, and then helping entities populate the registers with potential support from an external specialized consultancy firm. In short, developing an organizational framework for AM is a gradual process. However, it is useful to have a common vision and understanding about a more sophisticated AM system and organization as a final stage of an integrated asset management system.

An integrated AM framework (figure 1.4) shows a network of entities and allocation of AM functions in full harmony with the logical framework of AM (figure 1.2). The organizational framework in figure 1.4 is not an information and communication technology (ICT) realization scheme, but rather a functional division of mandates and responsibilities over the short term (for example, daily) and medium term across various entities. Large counties will be able to develop their AM system along the principle and logic of this scheme in the medium term. The figure shows that most of the entities required to perform good AM already exist in Kenyan counties, but mostly without consistent assignment of AM functions and communication lines.

Establishing a system pictured in figure 1.4 does not require establishing many new entities, since most of them do exist (for example, sectors and service departments or units). Instead, a consistent set of functions, mandates, and responsibilities needs to be assigned. A key takeaway is that establishing and empowering the AM system is one of the most demanding actions county governments need to undertake, but the payoff of doing so can be enormous. Figure 1.4 indicates that the Asset Management Department or Directorate (used interchangeably)—AMDR—is in a pivotal point in the AM system, and most of