MPs are considering a law change to introduce harsher penalties on state agencies and corporations that submit documents late for audit.
The Abdulswamad Nassir-led Public Investment Committee on Thursday tasked the Office of the Auditor General to identify areas in the Public Audit Act that can be amended to compel the state-funded institutions to avail crucial documents during audit processes.
The committee cited a situation where government bodies fail to submit audit documents only to appear with the voluminous files after the auditor has raised queries.
Many of the audit queries are unnecessary, they said, blaming it on the incompetence of state agencies’ employees who are hell-bent on frustrating the work of the auditors.
The Star has established that the lawmakers are considering among other deterrent measures, outlawing submission of late documents and adopting Edward Ouko’s report as it is.
The move is likely to hit most state corporations hard as they will be denied a second chance to explain questionable expenditure.
Nassir on Thursday expressed frustrations of the committee vowing they will not allow "continued wastage of Parliament’s time on matters that should have been solved during the audit process".
“We must be firm with such state corporations which intentionally refuse to cooperate with the office of the Auditor General,” the Mvita MP said.
“Even if this will force us to amend the laws then we will."
MPs Justus Kizito (Shinyali) and Omar Mohamed (Mandera East) supported calls for the introduction of stringent measures saying Parliament must act to save Ouko’s office from stubborn institutions.
Currently, the law compels accounting officers in state-funded institutions to prepare statements for each fiscal year three months after the end of the financial year which always falls in September.
Ouko then scrutinises the spending against the supporting documents a process which takes another three months before he submits the final report to Parliament.
Edited by R.Wamochie
