Sh33.9b cannot be accounted for, says Auditor

Kenya: House on Thursday indicates that out of the total revenue recorded during period in review of Sh813,222,666,210, only Sh11,266,757,66 or 1.38 per cent was fairly recorded while revenue amounting to Sh801,955,908,550 or 98.62 per cent had no proper records and could not therefore be confirmed as accurately reported.

The report noted that State House failed to avail documents in support of various expenditures totalling over Sh150 million.

The Auditor General cast doubt on the spending and said that in the absence of supporting documents, his office could not vouch for the proper use of the funds.

Other ministries that could not avail records to back huge expenditures include Ministry of Education with Sh6.7 billion and the Ministry of Higher Education with Sh4 billion.

Commission on Administrative Justice had the least amount of money allegedly spent without documentation, at only Sh3.1 million.

Other ministries that failed to provide documents for the money spent include Foreign Affairs (Sh4,521,596) and Defence (Sh350,00,000), The Auditor General notes in the report that the funds may not have been properly used.

"In the absence of the records and documentation, the propriety of the expenditure of the funds could not be ascertained and therefore these public funds may not have been utilised lawfully and in an effective manner," the audit report reads.

The report also reveals that the Government incurred excess expenditure amounting to Sh38,495,253 without parliamentary approval.

The money was incurred in four votes, among them the Witness Protection agency, the Commission for the Implementation of the constitution, the Judiciary and the Public Service Commission.

The report says that a number of ministries and departments did not settle bills amounting to Sh43.6 billion. The amount comprised Sh12.19 billion and Sh31.43 billion in recurrent and development votes respectively.

The Ministry of Defence did not settle the highest recurrent amount at Sh4.4 billion with the Provincial Administration and Internal Security failing to settle recurrent bills amounting to Sh1.6 billion.

The Ministry of Roads did not settle the highest amount of development expenditure at Sh20.9 billion followed by Public Works at Sh1.6 billion.

The report notes that had the bills totalling Sh4.6 billion been settled during the period and the expenditure charged to the accounts for 2012/2013 year, 16 ministries and departments would have recorded excess expenditure against recurrent and/or development votes.

The audit of temporary imprest revealed balances which ought to have been recovered or accounted for, on or before 30 June 2013, but were still outstanding as at the date amounting to Sh633 million.

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had the highest amount of outstanding imprests occasioned by un-reconcilling documents  at Sh491 million.

Maintainance of cashbooks across the ministries was noted to be weak.

Bank reconciliation statements for recurrent, development, deposits and fund continued to reflect material receipts and payments and cashbooks not reflected in the bank statements and also receipts and payments in the bank statements not reflected in the cashbooks.