Private audit firms 'covering up rot in State agencies'
Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir addresses a press conference on April 8, 2018 regarding corruption in the government. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Mr Nassir singled out the case of Kenya Power which was given a clean bill of health by private auditors only for top managers of the state corporation to be later arrested.
- The office of the Auditor-General is by law allowed to engage the services of private firms to help it in the audit of some parastatals on its behalf.
A parliamentary committee has raised questions over possible collusion between top managements of profitable parastatals under the Ministry of Energy with private auditors hired to check their books.
This is meant to give them a clean bill of health at the time of the scrutiny of their financial accounts, the National Assembly Public Investments Committee (PIC) said Thursday.
The committee chairman Abdulswamad Nassir questioned why agencies such as the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have always found some missing links in the financial operations of the companies while auditors give them high scores on financial probity.
INVESTIGATIONS
Mr Nassir said the committee has raised these concerns with DCI boss George Kinoti, seeking investigations over possible conspiracy between the parastatals’ managements and the auditors.
“It is suspicious that all these state corporations audited by the private firms are always given a clean bill of health every successive year yet those audited by the Auditor General have issues flagged down against them,” Mr Nassir said at Parliament Buildings.
“We want the DCI to look into how these audit processes are conducted because it cannot be that barely after a parastatal is audited and cleared, investigators unearth criminal activities in their operations and take top management to court as was the case with Kenya Power,” the Mvita MP said.
AUDITING
Mr Nassir singled out the case of Kenya Power which was given a clean bill of health by private auditors only for top managers of the state corporation to be later arrested and charged in court over massive rot in the company.
The office of the Auditor-General, known for unearthing massive financial irregularities in the operations of the State firms, is by law allowed to engage the services of private firms to help it in the audit of some parastatals on its behalf.
The office routinely contracts reputable firms such as Deloitte to audit National Oil Corporation and KETRACO and PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) to look into the accounts of Kenya Power, KenGen and GDC.
