New law says auditors of security agencies to be vetted

Auditors looking into how security agencies spend annual allocations will be vetted before they begin the task, according to a new law.

The staff would be vetted by an authorised government agency.

The Public Audit Act does not state which agency would do the vetting but the practice has been for the National Intelligence Service and the Directorate of Criminal Investigation to be involved.

In cases involving the military, the Directorate of Military Intelligence Service would be called to scrutinise the auditors. 

Before the staff of the Auditor-General’s office are allowed access to national security spending, a team of top officers from Kenya National Audit Office and the agency would meet to decide on the scope of the evaluation.

At this meeting, the Auditor-General and his representatives would also agree on areas that touch on national security and determine how to ensure confidentiality of information.

The report of the Auditor-General on security agencies would also be partially censored.

“The audit reports on national security organs may be redacted to shield identities of persons as well as assets and liabilities as the case may be,” the law reads. 

This is likely to make audit of the spending on national security harder than it has been in the past as the agencies would have a hand in deciding who gets access to books of account and what is to be kept secret.

Scrutiny of national security spending has been a contentious issue in the past.

Security heads are usually reluctant to disclose how they spent money allocated to them.

In 2014 and 2015, there was a tussle between the Public Accounts Committee and the Internal Security accounting officers over spending of Sh2.8 billion in confidential expenditure.