Auditor-General Edward Ouko recently the queried expenditure of Sh327.9
billion by government departments in the 2012/13 financial year. PHOTO |
FILE
By KIARIE NJOROGE
In Summary
Civil servants will be cited personally in audit
reports for loss of State funds in fresh amendments to the law that
grants the Auditor-General powers to recommend withholding funds to
corrupt State units.
The Public Audit Bill marks a departure from the current law
where the office of the Auditor-General only highlights misuse of State
funds by public bodies and offices but not individuals.
“The Auditor-General, or an officer authorised for
the purpose of this Act, shall have powers to attribute responsibility
for inaction, omissions, misuse or abuse of public resources to
individual public officers,” the Bill says.
The provision is a response to the misuse of public
funds that goes unpunished despite Parliament promising that those
culpable will be held to account.
Despite last year’s stern statement of intent by
the Public Accounts Committee on Sh303 billion that was unaccounted for
in 2011/12, no action or prosecutions have been made.
In the recently released audit for 2012/13,
Auditor-General Edward Ouko noted that the trend hasn’t changed much,
with public offices still not accounting for a sizeable chunk of
expenditure.
“Out of the total expenditure of Sh802,279,107,240
incurred in 2012/2013 under Recurrent and Development Votes, I was
unable to confirm whether expenditure totaling Sh337,902,304,501 or 42
per cent was incurred lawfully and in an effective way,” Mr Ouko said.
The Bill also grants the Auditor-General powers to recommend withholding of funds to a public entity for violation of the law.
“The Auditor-General may in his audit report to
Parliament or county assembly pursuant to Public Finance Management Act,
2012, recommend the withholding of funds to any State Organ or public
entity,” the Bill says.
Already, the Senate has instructed the Controller
of Budget and the Treasury not to release funds to four counties over
queries raised in a report published by the Auditor-General on their
accounts.
With this new law, this could be extended to
multiple agencies, departments, independent offices, commissions and
public corporations that fail audit tests.
The law comes at a time when MPs are demanding that
several public officers, including Defence principal secretary Mutea
Iringo, be held accountable for a suspicious transfer of Sh8.3 billion
into and out of the government’s secret security accounts during the
2013 transition period.
The Auditor-General’s report, released a month ago,
flagged some of the cash movements. But Mr Iringo who was the Interior
PS at the OP has, however, distanced himself from the suspicious cash
transactions, adding that he responded to all the audit queries raised
by the report.
It is expected the threat of bearing personal
responsibility and withholding of funds will prompt public units to be
more forthcoming with information to the audit office.
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