Auditor-General revealed that ministries and State agencies failed to account for Sh16.6 billion raising doubts on the authenticity purported of their spending.
The Auditor-General said over 20 ministries and government agencies could not show payment vouchers, records on receipt of delivered products, and purchase of items outside the budget.
“The failure by Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to fully support payments cast doubt on the authenticity of the expenditure reported as incurred,” said the report tabled by the Auditor-General tabled in Parliament.
Some of the government departments that topped the list of the department that could not account for the Sh16.6 billion include ICT, Special Programmes, Infrastructure, and Broadcasting. The department of ICT failed to support payments worth about Sh3.6 billion, Special Programmes Sh3.4 billion, Infrastructure Sh2.5 billion, and Broadcasting and Telecommunications Sh1.1 billion.
Others were the National Land Commission (NLC) and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
According to the report, Special Programmes did not issue correct records available to the Auditor-General to support expenditure on relief commodities amount to Sh3.4 billion.
The department also failed to account for revenue under the National Drought Management Authority and payments for maintenance of vehicles
Auditor-General said the State Department of Infrastructure’s expenditure supporting documents were not issued for the receivable balance of Sh1.1 billion, accounts payables amounting to Sh214.6 million, clearance account of Sh1.1 billion and, district suspense account of Sh110.9 million.
On the other end, the Broadcasting and Telecommunication department did not give out payment vouchers for use of goods and services amounting to Sh1.1 billion for audit.
The Auditor-General also raised concerns on the Sh142 billion balances that were not analyzed or supported.
The report by the Auditor-General shows that out of the 65 financial statements for entities with budgetary provisions, 19 got clean opinion while agreed with the underlying records, except for cases where material misstatements or omissions were noted leading to a qualified opinion.
Financial statements for nine entities showed significant misstatement leading to differing opinions – meaning the statement does not give accurate financial health.
Seven entities’ books of account show a serious and huge amount of misstatements that came from inadequate information, inadequacy or lack of records, and limitation of scope. This led to the Auditor- General not able to extract adequate information and could not form an opinion hence a disclaimer.
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