Audit report puts Uhuru in the spotlight again
Photo/FILE
Deputy Prime Minister and minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta delivers the 2011/2012 budget statement in Parliament on June 8 2011.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta is once again being faulted for failing to comply with the law after failing to submit the audit report of the 2009/2010 financial year to Parliament.
The Public Audit Act requires the minister to table the audit report in Parliament within seven days of receiving it from the Controller and Auditor General and before the end of the month of June.
The Controller and Auditor General submitted the report to Mr Kenyatta on May 26, meaning the minister should have tabled the same on or before June 2.
However, this was not case, and this has once again put the minister in the spotlight for failing to follow the law.
Gwassi MP Mr John Mbadi on Tuesday asked the Speaker of the National Assembly to crack the whip and impose sanctions on the Mr Kenyatta for flouting the law.
The MP said the minister’s behaviour was a clear indication of impunity. “For how long shall we allow the Minister for Finance who is also the Deputy Prime Minister to violate the law?” the MP asked.
“This amounts to an automatic disqualification from the position of the Minister for Finance,” the MP declared.
The minister was recently put on the spot for failing to act within the letter and spirit of the Constitution in the 2010/2011 Budget making process when he failed to table the estimates two months to the end of the financial year as required by the Constitution.
On Tuesday, Mr Mbadi said the Finance minister has also avoided giving his ministerial statement in response to his questions on the differences in revenue figures tabled in Parliament and why the Controller and Auditor General had not been satisfying the revenue account.
“The behaviour of the Finance Minister is a clear indication of acts of impunity, lack of regard for the rule of law and could be termed as blatant arrogance with no regard to the feelings of the people of Kenya,” the MP said.
The Public Audit Act, however, makes provisions for the Controller and Auditor General to move ahead and submit a copy of the audit report to the Speaker of the National Assembly.
