AuditorGeneral Edward Ouko has raised alarm over the existence of saboteurs in his office

Turf wars to vast corruption networks in Government. (Photo:Courtesy)

By LILLIAN KIARIE

Nairobi, Kenya: Auditor General Edward Ouko has raised alarm over the existence of saboteurs in his office. He points the turf wars to vast corruption networks in Government.

Speaking exclusively to The Standard, Dr Ouko pointed fingers at some people in Government working with officers within his office to stall Kenya National Audit Office (Kenao).

Ouko, whose audit reports have in the recent past been a source of unease across the Government, said he is feeling the pressure of a people afraid to be audited. Only last week, confidential documents and information on a planned ICT platform intended to monitor transactions in Government were leaked to the media ‘with the sole purpose of stopping the project’.

Public institutions

The audit office had sought to spend Sh100 million to purchase an Oracle-based software to help track irregular transactions in public institutions. The leakage included details of the voucher receipts. Besides questioning the procurement process, the leakage also dismissed the software as an unnecessary expense, which the audit office could do without. But Ouko termed it a scheme to give fraudsters a field day with public resources.

The software is able to collect the movement of financial transactions, gauge and detect abnormalities in real time as a safeguard against embezzlement in public offices.

Kenao has been using Integrated Financial Management Information Systems to check the financial planning and control public expenditure at both the national and county governments.

The new Oracle-based software has the ability to collect and consolidate audit data online and real time, hence enabling the auditor to trace the transactions as they happen.

 It detects any deletion or attempts to delete data and the source of such attempts.  “The audit vault software is set to monitor real time transactions and alert the auditors about any irregular transactions in a ‘pro-active, preventive and real time manner,” Ouko said.  He observed that the old practice that audits should be undertaken within six months after the end of each financial year is giving room to corruption and time for looters to cover up their tracks.

“This is why some people somewhere are not happy and are now using staff within my office to fight back,” he said. According to Ouko, the recent leakage of confidential documents is the latest in a series of man-made challenges designed to cripple the audit office or derail its projects.

“When I came to office, the sort of office I found was more of an appendage of The Treasury and manned by a clique of people ‘put there to take care of their masters’ interests rather than a professional outfit meant to institute accountability,” Ouko said.

Gatekeepers

As part of the reforms, Ouko brought on board more skilled employees including in key departments like accounts, human resource and procurement. Ouko says the change saw ‘gatekeepers of particular interests’ — some of who had been holding certain positions for close to a decade — reshuffled around office.

Last month also saw some key changes in the audit office with some people being kicked out. “The changes and our work over the last seven months exposing plunder of public resources have angered a few people and their masters,” he said.

Stopping short of naming the senior government official said to be working closely with internal staff to try and make his office appear in bad light, Ouko said the fight against misuse of public resources would not stop.

The Auditor General believes the swelling wage bill can only be reduced if all the loopholes used to embezzle funds are sealed. Every year, up to 30 per cent of the Government’s total budget goes to waste through pillage.

Last year, Ouko reported that about Sh338 billion was misappropriated and has warned that up to Sh480 billion will go to waste if nothing is done by the current leadership.

The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) Chairman Benson Okundi says the system used by the Office of the Auditor General for appraisal is internal and only they can divulge it.