•The report said 1,000 entities audited are drawn from the national government, four from the Judiciary, five from Parliament, county governments (405) and commissions and independent offices (24).
•The report by Gathungu said the number of audit clients has been increasing over the years and six special audits were finalised and reports submitted to Parliament.
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The Office of the Auditor General examined government expenditure amounting to Sh2.7 trillion for the 2020-2021 financial year.
The 2020-2021 Annual Corporate Report of the Auditor General said in the year under review, the office audited 1,438 public entities.
“During the period, the office submitted 2,531 audit reports to Parliament and the relevant county assemblies for deliberations and further action,” the report said.
It said 1,000 entities audited are drawn from the national government, four from the Judiciary, five from Parliament, county governments (405) and commissions and independent offices (24).
The report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu said the number of audit clients has been increasing over the years and six special audits were finalised and reports submitted to Parliament.
They included a Special Audit on Accounts of the National Land Commission (payments on behalf of other government entities) for 2014/2015 to 2016/2017, a Special Audit of Muhoroni Sugar Company – under receivership.
Others were Special Audit on Bomet -Procurement and Financing; Special Audit on utilisation of Covid-19 funds by national government entities for March 13- 31 July 2020 and Special Audit on Financial and Human Resources Operations at National Construction Authority for 2014-2015 to 2016/2017.
The report said achievements during the period under review included the development of a draft framework for tracking implementation of audit recommendations and clearing of significant audit backlog.
It cited several challenges among them budgetary constraints, tight timelines for completion of audit reports, little progress in implementation of audit recommendations and delays by Parliament to discuss performance audit reports.
“In FY 2019/2020, there was a delay in appointment of the Auditor-General for 11 months after the tenure of the previous one ended. This resulted in an accumulation of a backlog of unprocessed audit reports,” the report said.
It said in the 2020/2021 financial year, the auditor-general targeted to issue reports for two years for financial years 2018/2019 and 2019/2020.
During the financial year, 156 national government financial statements were examined, according to the report.
The statements were for government ministries departments and agencies, revenue statements, national funds and unique clients such as public debt, and national exchequer account.
Others were public trustees, business registration services and subscriptions to international organisations, but excluding donor-funded projects.
During the year under review, the office audited the financial statements of 47 county executives and a similar number of county assemblies’ financial statements.
“In the last five years, the county assemblies performed better compared to the county executives,” the report said.
In the 2018/2019 financial year, the office was allocated a recurrent budget of Sh5.42 billion with an actual expenditure of Sh o5.42 billion.
In 2019/2020 it was allocated Sh5.36 billion with actual expenditure of Sh5.25 billion.
In the 2020/2021 period, the allocation was Sh5.33 billion with an actual expenditure of Sh5.09 billion.
This translated to absorption rates of 100 per cent, 99 per cent and 96 per cent in 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/21 financial years respectively.
“In FY 2020/2021, the office of the auditor-general had a lower absorption rate of 96 per cent due to operational challenges associated with measures taken to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic,” the report said.
It said the office has embarked on a review of the Public Audit Act, 2015 to enhance the independence of the office and provide clearer provisions for effective execution of its mandate as required by the Constitution.
“We are advocating for the review of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 to provide for adequate timelines for submission of audit reports to Parliament and relevant assemblies,” the report said.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris