Parliament must strengthen public spending checks

Shocking revelations in the recent Auditor General’s reports on the use of public finances by the national and county government over the 2013/14 financial year, point to misuse of executive power and general institutional inefficiencies.

Only 1.2 percent of national government expenditure for the period under review was incurred in a lawful manner, 60 percent had issues and 38.5 percent could not be explained. The 2013/2014 gross budget of sh1,557,192,721,388 was shared between the National Government and the County Governments at the ratio of 87.5 percent and 12.5 percent respectively.

For instance, during 2013/2014, a number of Ministries, Departments, Commissions and Funds failed to avail documents in support of various expenditure totaling sh66,782,697,987. If minimum wage is sh12,000, sh66 billion can pay about 4,600,00 people for a year! Sixty-six billion is also way more than the sh24 billion Kenya received as loans from foreign governments and organizations.

In absence of the records and documentation, the propriety of the expenditure could not be ascertained and therefore these public funds may not have been utilized lawfully and in an effective manner.

Parliamentarians need to be concerned and act on the failure by the national and county governments to follow the laid down laws. The audit reports reveal the government’s utter disregard of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act 2005 and related Public Procurement Regulations, 2006 and 2013, Government Financial Regulations and Procedures, and Public Finance Management Act, 2012.

The gross concerns raised in the reports relate to unsupported expenditures, non surrender of imprests, unauthorized expenditures, long outstanding reconciling items in bank reconciliation statements, excess expenditure, mis-allocation of expenditure items and lack of adequate disclosures.

Others are discrepancies between the financial statements and the respective ledgers and the trial balance, differences between 2012/2013 closing audited balances and opening balances for 2013/2014, unsupported balances in the financial statements, and failure to prepare financial statements in accordance to International Public Sector Accounting Standards and treasury instructions

Although Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has come out to defend state agencies that requisite documents were availed late, it leaves a lot to be desired as to how public officers value public duty and public money. Failure to provide the necessary records in time could mean that they were non-existent and only conjured up when the audits were published to provide explanations.

Parliament has a duty to restore public trust in public officials by ensuring they are beyond reproach and working towards that which their oath of office expects them to deliver. It needs to call all the relevant officials to answer the concerns raised by the Auditor General and where they cannot, order further investigations and prosecutions by the relevant government agencies.

On the other hand, the Auditor General’s office should be strengthened through the Public Audit bill and capacitated to provide the annual audit reports in a timely manner and inform the next year’s budget.

Posted by Mzalendo Editor on Aug. 3, 2015

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