Parliament has finally settled on PKF Kenya as the external auditor who will review the Office of the Auditor General’s accounts for financial years running from 2014 to year ending 2018.
This will bring to an end the long search for a reputable external firm to scrutinise the accounting books of the OAG after Parliament failed to get one in its three previous attempts.
The Public Accounts Committee chaired by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi selected the firm, which was among seven that tendered their bids for the lucrative job.
The others were Nelson & Francis Associates, Mazars, Ronalds and Associates, Ernest and Martin Associates, Ambale & Company Limited, and Kiarie Kangethe & Associates.
The committee chose M/s PKF Kenya after receiving a recommendation of award of tender from the Office of the Clerk of the National Assembly.
The team gave varied reasons for rejecting the bids for the other applicants citing that an offer had been made to PKF Kenya subject to approval by the National Assembly.
“The committee recommends to the National Assembly to approve the award of hire of External Audit Services for the Office of the Auditor-General for the Financial Years 2014/2015; 2015/16; 2016/2017; and, 2017-2018 to M/S PKF Kenya pursuant to the provisions of Article 226(4) of the Constitution,” Wandayi said in the report is set for tabling in the House.
Some of the reasons that saw the firms fail were that they either did not attach a valid tax compliance certificate, ICPAK registration, invalid practising certificates, and failure to submit tender security.
Others were dropped because their documents were not properly paginated; did not submit a detailed firm profile as required; did not present the original and copies of the request for proposal.
There were firms which were equally dropped having failed to confirm if its staff and partners are not aware of any conflict of interest or submit a sworn affidavit stating the same.
Article 226 (4) of the Constitution provides that the accounts of the OAG be audited by a professionally qualified accountant appointed by the National Assembly.
However, the office has remained unaudited since 2014 after the National Assembly failed to hire a reputable firm to scrutinize the financial books of the office.
House Clerk Michael Sialai said that three previous bids for a firm to audit OAG have been non-responsive.
The Parliamentary Service Commission previously engaged M/s Baker Tilly Meralli's to audit the Auditor-General for the Financial Years 2011/2012, 2012/2013 and 2013/2014.
After the expiry of the contract, PSC in 2016 attempted to identify a professionally qualified accountant to provide external audit services to the auditor’s office for financial years from 2014 to 2017.
PSC recommended the hiring of M/s Baker Tilly Meralli, from the firm firms that expressed interest. However, the firm was dropped on the floor on account of the conflict of interest.
In October 2017, Parliament floated a tender for an audit firm. Four firms – Karie Kang’the and Company, BDO East Africa Limited, Olsen Partners and Nelson & Francis Associates applied.
After evaluations, however, all the bids were found to be non-responsive leading to termination of the tender in December.
In January the following year, another tender was floated, but the tender was terminated shortly after bids were non-responsive.
