PAC chairman Ababu Namwamba at a past committee meeting. His team says ministries and agencies cannot explain Sh30 billion spending. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA |
What you need to know:
Principal Secretaries and chief executives of State- owned firms who fail to keep proper books of accounts will be held personally responsible and surcharged for the unsupported expenditure.
This follows the adoption by Parliament of recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the government accounts for the year 2012/13.
The committee warned that in future, it will name and shame accounting officers who do not take audit process seriously.
Principal Secretaries and chief executives of State- owned firms who fail to keep proper books of accounts will be held personally responsible and surcharged for the unsupported expenditure.
This follows the adoption by Parliament of recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the government accounts for the year 2012/13 before MPs went on Christmas recess.
The committee chaired by Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba said that 36 government agencies and ministries failed to support expenditure of Sh29.96 billion as at the time of the adoption of the PAC report on December 4 last year.
“The committee recommends that accounting officers must be held personally responsible and be duly surcharged for all the unsupported expenditure,” the report states.
This liability for unsupported expenditure is a step up of what the Constitution demands.
Article 226(5) demands that accounting officers such as PSs, State House comptroller, parastatal chief executives and the Judiciary registrar bear direct personal liability for any public funds lost, wasted or misapplied under their watch.
“If the holder of a public office, including a political office, directs or approves the use of public funds contrary to the law, the person is liable for any loss arising from that use and shall make good the loss, whether the person remains the holder of the office or not,” the law says.
The addition of unsupported expenditure is meant to enhance record keeping of State accounts, a breach that has seen billions of shillings of tax payers go unaccounted.
Of the 36 ministries, departments and agencies, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the Ministry of Education, Gender, Children and Social Development and Provincial Administration and Internal Security topped the list of institutions whose accounting officers (usually principal secretaries or chief executive officers) could not produce documents to support their budgetary spending ranging between Sh3 billion and Sh6 billion.
Ministries of Livestock Development, Foreign Affairs, Forestry and Wildlife, Information and Communications and Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ) could not produce documents to support expenditures of between Sh380,000 and Sh13 million.
IEBC had unsupported expenditure of Sh5.98 billion, Education (Sh5.8 billion), Gender and Children (Sh4.3 billion), Provincial Administration (Sh3.2 billion) and Higher Education, Science and Technology (Sh4 billion).
Ministries with least amount of unsupported expenditure were Immigration (Sh380,000), Livestock (Sh2.9 million), CAJ (Sh3.1 million), Foreign Affairs (Sh4.5 million), Information (Sh12.2 million) and Forestry (Sh13.2 million).
“The committee observed that failure to support expenditure was a serious violation of the Constitution, statutes and regulations,” the report says.
The committee also noted that in many instances cases of supporting documents required for audit review were submitted way out of the audit cycle.
The committee recommended that accounting officers to institute strict measures to ensure that their ministries and departments have in place proper records.
The MPs directed accounting officers to ensure strict adherence to section 68 of the Public Finance Management Act.
The committee warned that in future, it will name and shame accounting officers who do not take audit process seriously.
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