Mr Bernard Muchere testifies before the Senate Committee on Health Nov 15, 2016.PHOTO | FILE
Taxpayers will take longer to know the extent of financial irregularities at Afya House after internal auditor Bernard Muchere said he would require more time and people to complete his audit report.
Mr Muchere told Senate Committee on Health on Tuesday that January is the earliest he can complete in what could delay the MPs’ probe of questionable procurement estimated at Sh5 billion.
He was scheduled to table a complete audit report before the committee — which is rocked with infighting — Tuesday.
“We are yet to complete audit on three departments at MOH including National Quality Control Laboratory, the Government Chemist and the Radiation Protection Board. We need additional auditors to complete audit of all departments by end of January,” he said.
Mr Muchere said preliminary analysis of the three departments had raised financial mismanagement issues.
Last week, Mr Muchere told Senators of hardships he faced trying to access payment vouchers from accounting and procurement departments at the Ministry, which subsequently slowed down his work.
The auditor lifted the lid on multi-billion shilling questionable dealings at the Health Ministry headquarters through a leaked internal audit.
The report unearthed massive theft of public funds through forgery, double payments, illegal budgetary overspending as well as manipulation of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis).
Mr Muchere said that he was particularly concerned that many of the ministry’s procurements had been pushed through the government’s digital financial management platform Ifmis without supporting physical payment vouchers as required by law.
He gave the example of the payment of Sh265 million to unknown recipients at Co-operative Bank which was not supported by any documents.
The audit found that more than Sh515 million was lost through outright theft and double payments made under the National Aids and STI Control Programme (NASCOP).
The amount was ostensibly used to purchase food supplements and ratios for Aids patients, whose storage or use the audit could not ascertain.
An estimated Sh265.7 million of the amount was paid to Co-operatives Bank, an action the audit found to be expressly fraudulent.
Mr Muchere said that he handed in the interim audit report to the Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu who had asked for it for use in decision making at the management level.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
