A new way of presenting audit reports in the National Assembly
The government’s audit reports are big tomes with sky blue manila covers with large black print and the coat of arms.
They don’t exactly look like the sort of books usually described as thrillers you can’t put down, but they are significant because they contain an examination of how taxpayers’ money has been spent by the various civil servants and point out areas where questions arise.
They are the official statement of whether taxes have been spent as budgeted.
Before Tuesday, their presentation in the National Assembly was an insignificant event, with the Leader of Government Business in the last Parliament and the Majority Leader in the current one merely tabling them.
They would then be handed over to the Public Accounts Committee for scrutiny.
That is why the decision to allow Auditor General Edward Ouko to present the highlights of his latest report on the national government’s expenditure in the chamber is significant.
By having the Auditor General stand at the dispatch box like Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich did in June, the Public Accounts Committee was hoping the report would get more attention than it usually does.
The committee has been of the opinion that the presentation of that report ought to get as much attention as the presentation of the Budget by the boss at Treasury every year.
“This is a historic moment. We are breaking new ground,” PAC chairman Ababu Namwamba said before the session Tuesday.
“Many democracies that are progressive in nature in terms of oversight are going this route. The Public Accounts Committee does this in the belief that under our Constitution today, oversight has been raised to another level,” said Mr Namwamba.
He said there ought to be more interest in the audit report because the division of revenue between the national and county governments is based on the last audited accounts.
Because of the time it takes to go through a report, the Sh210 billion allocated to counties this year was based on the audited accounts for the 2009/2010 financial year.
“The division of resources between the national government and the county government also depends on expenditure as audited by the Auditor General. The committee is very keen to ensure that we are up to date and we are in real time in terms of the audited accounts,” said Mr Namwamba.
He said the committee is keen to reduce the backlog of audit reports yet to be scrutinised. PAC scrutinises the report by having accounting officers from ministries whose accounts are flagged explain the discrepancies.
“We have consulted with the office of the Auditor General and we support him fully. The arrangement you are seeing in the House this afternoon is part of the process of expediting the process of audit, of bringing reports to this House and this House considering those reports,” said Mr Namwamba.
Mr Namwamba asked MPs to take an individual interest in oversight of the Executive.
PAC member Junet Mohammed (Suna East, ODM) told the Nation MPs also need to ensure the Office of the Auditor General gets more money in the Budget.
“We need to give the Auditor General more money so that he can do a better job than before. All these Constitutional offices need to be empowered to carry out their mandate as required by the Constitution because they don’t have a secondary but a primary mandate,” said Mr Mohammed.
Johnson Sakaja (Nominated, TNA) protested that the report should have been submitted earlier so that MPs could peruse it before Mr Ouko presents its highlights.
He said the agreement at the House Business Committee was that the report would be tabled last Thursday so that MPs can be familiar with it beforehand.
“For us to play our oversight role well in this House, we can’t just be coming to watch a movie, or to watch it being presented. We really need to be able to ask questions,” said Mr Sakaja.
