Auditor report reveals Sh4 billion could have been lost in unexplained expenditure

NAIROBI: The Auditor General has questioned huge pending bills by ministries and State departments, particularly raising doubts about more than Sh4 billion that has no supporting documents.

The audit report for 2013-14 financial year reveals that during the year ended on June 30, 2014, seven ministries, the Judiciary, Office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission failed to settle bills amounting to Sh16,638,164,142.

Of this, Sh4,203,969,660 could have been lost following unsupported pending bills, with the IEBC posting Sh1,460,466,960 followed by the Ministry of Health, where the use of Sh2,165,368,641 could not be explained.

According to the report, the Ministry of Education had the highest pending bills of Sh7, 891,546,180 for its recurrent expenditure followed by the Ministry of Agriculture with Sh2,681,683,989, of which Sh2,070,194,025 is under development, Sh35,857,756 under recurrent and another Sh575,632,208 is unclassified.

And despite the Ministry of Health falling under the national government, the Auditor General's report said Sh2,165,368,641 unclassified bills were pending at the ministry.

LANDS MINISTRY

The reports said the Ministry of Devolution has a pending bill of Sh1,113,380 not paid during the year but carried forward in respect to construction of civil works, supply of goods and services and staff payables.

Others are Land, Housing and Urban Development Sh392,596,163 (recurrent), Sports Sh143,967,837 (development)) and Environment, Water and Natural Resources Sh471,807,164 (development).

The Office of the Auditor General noted that bills of Sh2,501,851 at the Office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice, whose use could not be explained, and another Sh17,060,902 for development incurred in the last financial year, was pushed to be cleared in 2014/2015.

The Judiciary also had Sh297,784,255 used for development that was not cleared in the financial year under review.

"Had the bills been settled, the statement of receipts and payments could have reflected a deficit of Sh28,497,362 instead of the surplus of Sh269,286,893 now reflected," said the report.

The report further revealed had the bills totaling Sh16,638,164,142 been settled during the period and the expenditure charged to the accounts for 2013/2014, six additional ministries and departments would have recorded excess expenditure against recurrent and/or development of Sh3,191,511,960.