Health ministry auditor says he can't confirm how much was lost

An auditor at the centre of the Sh5.2 billion scandal at the Ministry of Health has said he cannot confirm how much money was lost.

Mr Bernard Muchere, the ministry’s head of internal audit, appeared before the Senate Health Committee chaired by Dr Wilfred Machage (Migori) on Tuesday. He said unless a forensic audit is done it would be difficult to ascertain the figure.

The committee’s vice-chairperson, Ms Zipporah Kittony (nominated), piled pressure on the auditor to confirm how much money could not be accounted for at the Ministry.

“Were you able to establish how much money was lost in your final report?” Ms Kittony asked. “We hear of double payments and colossal amounts not being accounted for.”

Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Maillu had earlier announced a reduced figure of Sh3.2 billion, saying the government was undertaking an independent audit.

“A forensic audit can confirm whether money was lost or not,” Mr Muchere told the committee at Parliament Buildings. “The normal audit only raises the red flags for management action,”

But the auditor maintained that there was noncompliance with the law, which alludes to misappropriation of public funds.

“If the law is supposed to prevent something and someone overrides that law, what is the supposed end result?” Mr Muchere quipped.

Dr Machage sought to know if the final audit presented covered the 2015/2016 financial transactions at the ministry or just the interim audit report that exposes financial impropriety that included double payments and use of fake vouchers for payments.

He asked the auditor to confirm if he had detected that up to Sh30 million was misappropriated in the laboratory after fake documentations were used to undertake shoddy transactions.

The auditor said he had concentrated on issues in the interim audit report and a more comprehensive audit report that covers all the departments in the ministry will be ready by January.

“I have a file referred to me by the Cabinet Secretary,” said Mr Muchere. “We are still doing an audit.

“The ministry has many departments. I will finally complete the audit and give the report to the accounting officer.”

He cited the National Quality Labaratory, the Gvernment Chemist, and Radiation Protection as the departments that he is still interrogating to determine value for money.

“I am very much concerned with these departments,” Mr Mucheru told the committee. “I have enough reasons to have queries in their financial management.”

He said the major issues being interrogated are on funding and transfer of funds.

This follows concerns that the departments have pending bills yet the Integrated Financial Management System (Ifmis) shows that funds for transactions in debt were exhausted.

The auditor further said he was investigating if, indeed, a chief financial officer diverted funds meant for National Aids and STI Control Programme (Nacsop) for purchase of food to the Nutrition Department.