Audit office ‘now fast’ in exposing graft cases
Nairobi Mayor Geophrey Odhiambo Majiwa leaves Nairobi Anti-corruption Court on October 26,2010. PHOTO/ PETERSON GITHAIGA
What you need to know:
- Public sector auditors have reduced period of completing annual reports, resulting in early detection of funds misuse
Government auditors have promised to take a short time to expose corruption cases in the public sector.
The Kenya National Audit Office announced it had cut its period of completing annual reports to less than six months, which means misuse of funds is detected early.
“The audit office is increasingly unearthing (cases of) misappropriation of public funds as soon as they happen,” said the latest issue of Wajibika, the official magazine of the government’s public financial management reforms programme.
“This is unlike in the past where scandals like Goldenberg took over six years to be unearthed.”
The publication cited the Sh283 million Nairobi City Council cemetery scandal in which land meant for graves was overpriced as one of the scams that it unearthed soon after it happened.
At least 15 senior officials are under investigation following the cemetery scandal where the taxpayer lost money in land considered useless for graves.
Already, permanent secretary Sammy Kirui and Nairobi mayor Geophrey Majiwa have been charged in court over the scandal.
At the Education ministry, the magazine said, the audit office had detected that Sh103 million had been lost through unreturned imprests.
At least 10 officers have been charged in court over failure to account for the imprests following investigations by the Kenya Anti- Corruption Commission.
According to the magazine, the audit office had cleared audit backlogs in the central government.
“It is now able to cover 100 per cent of central government requirements annually,” the report said of the ability of the auditors to look into State accounts.
The document said the changes had happened following increased staff training and strengthening of relationships between the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament and the Kenya National Audit Office.
According to the magazine, a computer system is being installed to help ministries administer their finances and keep track of expenditure as one of the ways of sealing corruption loopholes.
