•KWS is also on spot for failing to create Endowment Fund.
•Unsupported Sh560m wildlife compensation spending also flagged.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
An unexplained Sh60 million confidential expenditure is now subject of an audit query at the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu says a review of the expenditure revealed unsatisfactory matters putting the John Waweru-led agency on the spot.
The payment for confidential expenditure, the auditor revealed in her report tabled in Parliament recently, was not properly supported by signed certificates.
The Public Finance Management Regulations, 2015, provides that the documents are supposed to be signed by the Tourism CS Najib Balala and the director general.
“The management did not explain existing control measures that are in place to mitigate against risks of mismanaging confidential expenditure,” Gathungu said in the agency’s audit for year ending June 2020.
“Consequently, it was not possible to confirm the validity and completeness of the other operating and maintenance expenditure of Sh239,369,000.”
KWS has also been reprimanded for failing to establish an Endowment Fund as required by the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, 2013.
Some Sh500 million from the Kenya Railways and Sh2.47 billion from Kenya National Highways Authority in proceeds to the fund also remain outstanding.
The amounts due from the two entities were for compensation for land hived off for the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway and the Southern bypass.
But Gathungu says for its failure to establish the fund, “the management was in breach of the law” in the ensuing circumstances.
KWS has further been called out over inefficiencies in the agency’s revenue collection system—Safaricard— which is argued to be porous.
The system is used in eight major parks namely Nairobi National Park, Tsavo East, Tsavo West, Amboseli, Abderdares, Lake Nakuru, as well as Malindi and Mombasa marine parks.
However, in the other 23 national parks and six marine parks, the system is not in use and most revenue collection processes are manual.
Gathungu has raised concerns that the Safaricard revenue collection system was not integrated with the agency’s financial system, Sunsystem Accounting. In this regard, revenue data is manually captured in the Sunsystem.
“The manual process, lack of revenue collection system in some of the parks and unreliability of communication network, made it difficult to analyse the revenue data used in the preparation of the financial statements,” the audit report reads.
The auditor castigated management after it failed to give a plausible explanation as to why a better revenue management system had not been put in place “in order to provide timely, reliable, and accurate revenue data.”
“Consequently, the efficiency and completeness of revenue collection processes could not be confirmed,” Gathungu said in the face of an unexplained variance of Sh257 million of the collected revenue.
KWS has also been called out over an unsupported expenditure of Sh559.3 million on compensating victims of human-wildlife conflicts.
The auditor said KWS did not provide supporting documents including original claim forms from the victims, police reports, medical reports and minutes of deliberations from the County Wildlife Conservation and Compensation Committees for audit review.
“In the circumstances, the accuracy and validity of the expenditure on wildlife compensation of Sh599,313,000 could not be confirmed,” the report reads.
Also flagged is an unsupported procurement of a lawyer which saw the wildlife agency irregularly expend Sh125.7 million during the year under review.
Gathungu said documents on how the advocates were sourced, evaluated, and awarded the contracts were not provided for audit review.
The signed contracts were not provided for review. The management also did not provide documentary evidence of cases presented and payments made thereof for fee notes of Sh58.6 million.
The audit further revealed that the legal services were contracted without the prior approval or concurrence of the Attorney General as required of the Office of the Attorney Act, 2012.
“Consequently, it was not possible to confirm that the expenditure on the legal services conformed to laws and regulations and that it represented a proper charge on public funds,” the auditor said.
Gathungu also warned of diminishing existence and viability of national parks in the face of massive encroachment, some with the nod of management.
She cited Amboseli National Park and Nakuru as among the most threatened wildlife ecosystems.
“Lands that have been converted to farmlands have been fenced out hence blocking animals’ natural migratory routes and feeding grounds,” the auditor said.
“Consequently, the park is under threat and hence faces uncertainty of existence and sustainability.”
-Edited by SKanyara