Parliament calls for Auditor General appearance over allegedly compromised audit findings
The National Assembly committee has summoned Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, following accusations that her audit reports are of poor quality and compromised. The main concerns revolve around claims that auditors are colluding with state agencies to give them a clean bill of health, despite glaring financial irregularities.
The committee's concerns are based on several key issues:
- Allegations of Collusion: Members of Parliament (MPs) allege that auditors often meet with state agencies, clear them of any wrongdoing, and then bring the reports to parliament for rubber-stamping, without addressing critical issues.
- Poor Quality of Reports: The committee feels that the quality of audit reports is "wanting," failing to flag major irregularities and thus allowing questionable financial records to be sanitized.
- Specific Instances: For instance, the Kenya Space Agency has had 14 staff members serving in acting capacity for over a year, and 45 staff members are on short-term contracts. Despite these issues, the agency was cleared by the Auditor General. Similarly, KNQA, the Kenya National Qualifications Authority, was flagged for failure to surrender excess appropriations in aid, but the issue was marked as cleared.
Committee chairperson Jack Wamboka accused the Kenya Space Agency Director General Hilary Kosgei and KNQA Chief Executive Alice Kande of exposing flimsy issues while leaving out critical ones. Wamboka stated that Parliament cannot be used as a means to rubber stamp irregularities in government. He also expressed concern that the Kenya Space Agency and KNQA had audit questions yet they had been cleared by the Office of the Auditor General.
In response, Wamboka stated that the committee will meet with the Auditor General to discuss the poor quality of audits and request fresh audits for some institutions. He questioned why KNQA had only two staffing-related issues for the last four financial years and why KNQA had one audit query for the last four financial years and which had been marked as cleared.
Interestingly, the report did not provide specific details about the two staffing-related issues raised against KNQA, nor did it mention any new concerns or questions about the Kenya Space Agency that had been cleared by the Office of the Auditor General. Moreover, the report did not mention any new discussions or meetings between the National Assembly committee and the Auditor General or any new requests for fresh audits for institutions.
It is worth noting that KNQA was not mentioned as having a lack of an internal audit unit in the report, unlike the Kenya Space Agency, which lacks such a unit. This raises further questions about the thoroughness of the audits conducted by the Office of the Auditor General.
As the investigation continues, the National Assembly committee is determined to ensure that audits are conducted with integrity and transparency, and that they accurately reflect the financial health of state agencies.
The committee plans to meet with the Auditor General to discuss concerns about compromised audits, alleging collusion with state agencies and poor report quality, particularly in instances like the Kenya Space Agency and KNQA, where audited entities were cleared despite obvious financial irregularities.
Following the investigation, the committee aims to request fresh audits for some institutions to ensure accuracy in policy-and-legislation matters related to the general-news of financial health within state agencies.
