The government is on the spot for the expenditure of millions of shillings in a confidential vote which it declined to explain to auditors.
A new report by Auditor General Edward Ouko has unearthed accounting anomalies in the ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs regarding the secret vote.
The millions were spent in the run-up to the 2017 General Elections.
Ouko said the Ministry of Interior suspiciously transferred Sh350 million to North Eastern regional commissioner without explanation.
“No reason has been given for huge transfers that are not being supported with expenditure returns required in accordance with Section 9 (1) (e) of Public Audit Act (2015), ” the audit states.
The law gives the Auditor General unrestricted access to all books and records of all government entities
Curiously, in the previous year, auditors had also uncovered a similar transfer of Sh150 million to the same county commissioner.
At the time of the last election, Mohamud Ali Saleh was the North Eastern regional commissioner
Auditors also revealed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the tenure of now Sports Minister Amina Mohammed spent Sh437.7 million on a confidential vote, that Ouko only described as “campaign”.
However, documents provided in support of the controversial expenditure amounted to only Sh385.6 million, resulting in expenditure difference of Sh52 million which Ouko said has not been fully accounted for satisfactorily.
It further said schedules for bank payments in respect of the confidential expenditure reflects payments totalling Sh50,000,000 through a local bank out of which an amount of Sh30,000,000 is claimed to have been transferred to another government agency.
“However, the financial statements of that agency for the year ended 30 June 2017 do not reflect any transfers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” the report points out.
The report said the remaining amount of Sh20,000,000 is indicated in the documents made available for audit as having been paid to the principal secretary for the purposes of a special activity but is not supported by any relevant documentation.
“Consequently, the propriety of the total expenditure of Sh50,000,000 cannot be confirmed,” it added.
In February last year, the High Court quashed sections of the law that could have clipped auditor's wings from scrutinising billions of shillings annually allocated to the military and other national security organs.
Justice Chacha Mwita declared Section 40 of the Public Audit Act no 34 of 2015 and others within the Act as inconsistent with constitutional provisions.
The controversial law bulldozed in Parliament by Jubilee MPs required the Auditor General “to hold an inception meeting at the highest level to agree on areas on national security and determine the appropriate audit approach to ensure confidentiality of information".
The section further required that auditors “be vetted by authorised government vetting agency” and that “auditor reports on national security organ may be redacted to shield identities of persons as well as assets and liabilities”
(edited by O. Owino)
