President Uhuru Kenyatta has given government officials seven days to explain how over Sh300 billion said by the auditor general to be missing or unaccounted for in the 2011/12 financial year was spent.
A cabinet brief sent on Thursday after a cabinet meeting noted that each ministry is to prepare “a comprehensive report on how funds were utilised in their dockets in the period referred to by the Auditor General’s report. Their reports to be submitted to Cabinet in a week’s time.”
On Tuesday the auditor general, Mr Edward Ouko (right), told the National Assembly at a special session that of the Sh920 billion spent by the government in the 2011/2012 financial year, Sh303 billion could not be accounted for.
In a damming report, the auditor general added that of the 252 financial statements submitted by various ministries and government agencies only 15 or six per cent were kept in accordance with the rules.
More than half of the statements examined had errors attributed to unsupported expenditure, failure by civil servants to surrender imprests, unauthorised spending and uncleared balances.
They also had excess expenditure, misallocation of expenditure items and lack of adequate disclosures. The key indication is the claim by the auditor general that 83 of the financial statements, 33 per cent, were so poorly kept that he was unable to tell what it is that the records were meant to reflect.
Effectively, the auditor general summarised that “it was impossible to tell what the government owns or the liabilities that it carries.”
Mr Ouko warned that if not checked, this bad management of the government’s accounts could continue into the 47 county governments formed after the General Election in March.
“The situation will definitely be more complicated and intricate when county governments come on board as this problem will be devolved to all the 47 of them,” he said. “There is weak and inadequate maintenance of accounting records observed across ministries throughout the year,” noted Mr Ouko.
Twenty ministries and departments could not produce documents to support the expenditure of some Sh5.2 billion. Some Sh7 billion was spent in excess of the amounts approved by Parliament in four ministries and one commission — Roads, Justice, Education, Forestry and Teachers Service Commission.
The report has attracted widespread condemnation with Transparency International Kenya calling for prosecution of the officers in charge.
“The report presented to Members of Parliament this week by the Office of the Auditor General showing that over Sh300 billion from the financial year 2011/2012 has not been properly accounted for calls for action to be taken against those responsible,” Transparency International Kenya says in statement sent to media houses Friday.
Daily Nation
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