MPs urged to act on audit irregularities

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu before the Senate's CPAC committee. [File, Standard] Members of Parliament have been challenged to take action on officials responsible for queries raised in audit reports. The Office of the Auditor General, in a response to MPs who complained that irregularities noted in the National Government- Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) were painting them in bad light, said it's the responsibility of House committees to punish those responsible. Yesterday, members of the Budget and Appropriations Committee absolved themselves from blame, accusing the Auditor General of failing to come to the rescue of legislators whose constituencies are named in various audit reports for misappropriation of funds. The MPs were reacting to the recent performance audit report, which questioned the management of bursaries and scholarships, citing unsupported disbursements to 86 constituencies amounting to Sh2.1billion. The report also revealed how various constituencies issued multiple bursaries and scholarships, while in others either stale cheques were issued or the cheques were uncollected, among other issues. According to the MPs, constituency fund managers are the accounting officers for NG-CDF. The members sought answers from Deputy Auditor General Isaac Kamau, who appeared before the team on behalf of Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, to defend their budget as contained in the Supplementary Estimates No 1 of 2026. But Kamau said their mandate ends when a report is tabled in Parliament. "The question would be, where are we having a big challenge in the implementation because we have released quite a number of reports and given our recommendations. We have released reports and given them to the various oversight committees. One of the challenges in fiscal indiscipline is because we are not holding people to account," he said. He said there is need to set a culture of holding people to account, insisting that the information they release is important to help keep the record on fiscal discipline. Committee Vice Chairperson Robert Pukose warned that MPs may reject proposals from the Auditor General due to the unfavourable audit reports. "As a committee, when we get a proposal to support you, I think many members will be shooting it down, and I don't know, you do it towards election time. We do not know whether you do it to disparage or target certain MPs and then put in the media in a very negative way." they conduct audits in the 290 constituencies, the outcome of which are reports that unfairly disparage the MPs. "Parliament has tried as much as we can to make sure, we facilitate the OAG but unfortunately, the people who are working there is the problem because when you audit and write a report that implicates MPs, who are not even the accounting officers, then I think the gains we are making are drawing back," Pukose regretted. He added: "As a committee, when we get a proposal to support you (OAG), I think many members will be shooting it down, and I don't know, you do it towards election time. We do not know whether you do it to disparage or target certain MPs and then put in the media in a very negative way. I don't know what your response on that is because that kind of thing is a big letdown to Mps." Eldas Mp, Adan Keynan also called for the need for the OAG to correct wrong notion that goes to the public, since they are entitled to the right information. "What remains constant is the public has a right to be informed and consume the right information while the auditor as the right to audit...When you realize there is misrepresentation of what is contained in the report, legally and fairly, you are duty bound to come out and issue a rebuttal and say what is not part of your report. This means all of us have become subject of misleading information," Keynan said. With Igembe South MP, John Mwirigi posing: "How do we, as MPs, get directly involved in this fund because we are not direct signatories, we only do oversight and that is clear. How do our names come to play when these implications come about?" Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu insisted on the need to manage politics arising from audit reports that negatively impact MPs mentioned instead of the Constituency Fund Managers who run the kitty. ""On this CDF, this is a matter that we have discussed and there is need to manage the politics between your audit reports and the House. You know very well that we are not the accounting managers but only patrons but when you look at front pages of mainstream media concerning CDF, you will see photos of MPs who are wrongly accused of misappropriating NG-CDF. Why not educate the media that Fund Managers are the accounting officers? Although the MPs insist that they only act as NG-CDF patrons, they wield power on allocation of bursaries, issuing cheques and the construction of projects.

MPs urged to act on audit irregularities

Get Full Access for Ksh299/Week.

Related Topics

Similar Articles

Latest Stories

The Standard Insider

Digger Classified

GET OUR NEWSLETTER

CONNECT WITH US

FOR THE LATEST JOB ADVERTS

Similar Articles

KPA lost Sh195m in container handler deal, court files reveal

Kenyan firms eye DRC for exports, raw materials

State moves to ease fears over tighter cargo controls

Feedlot farming: The new cashcow for Kenya's beef industry operators

DIGGER JOBS

Digger Motors

Digger Real Estate

MPs urged to act on audit irregularities

Get Full Access for Ksh299/Week.

Related Topics

Similar Articles

Latest Stories

The Standard Insider

Digger Classified

GET OUR NEWSLETTER

CONNECT WITH US

FOR THE LATEST JOB ADVERTS