Principal secretaries on the spot over Sh16b expenditures
Mercy Mwai @wangumarci
A House committee wants 16 Principal Secretaries, who are the accounting officers in their respective ministries and departments, held accountable for failing to justify expenditures amounting to Sh16.6 billion.
In a report tabled in the National Assembly on Tuesday, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) regretted that failure by the ministries to fully support the payment casts doubt on the authenticity of the expenditure reported as incurred.
According to the committee chaired by Ugunja Member of Parliament Opiyo Wandayi, all public entities should ensure they keep comprehensive asset registers to protect public assets.
“Within three months of tabling and adoption of this report, Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury issued a written reprimand to all the Accounting Officers of the 16 agencies, who submitted unsupported expenditures totaling Sh16,603,001,514,” the report.
Consequently, MPs also want the National Treasury CS to within the next three months, reprimand all the accounting officers whose entities did not ensure that complete financial and accounting records, including support documents, were presented to the Auditor General in time as this is contravention of provisions of Article 229 of the Constitution and Section 68(2) of the Public Finance Management Act (PFM) Act 2012.
The committee notes that the issuance of disclaimer of opinion by the Auditor is a pointer to a serious material breach of the measures established under the Public Finance laws to protect public funds, as contemplated in the PFM Act.
“Within three months of tabling and adoption of this report, the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury should take administrative action in line with Section 67 of the PFM Act, 2012 (including revoking the designation as Accounting Officer) on all Accounting Officers whose entities received disclaimer of opinion,” the report.
Regarding individual ministries on the performance of the National Treasury, the committee wants the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission to within three months, investigate the organisation, administration and personnel practices of the National Treasury with a view to determine how many persons beyond the stipulated retirement age are still in service.
They want the Public Service Commission to revoke any acting or substantive appointment for any person aged 60 or older and is not registered as a person with disability if it did not approve that appointment.
This is after the committee noted that after reviewing sample personnel files on local contract terms, it established that seven officers, who had attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 years and are not registered as persons living with disability are under contract. Three of them have had their contracts extended several times.
Contract terms
“The National Treasury has continued to retain officers beyond stipulated age while there are highly qualified young public officers in the services,” the report.
At the Ministry of Health, the MPs want the DCI to within the next three months investigate former Health Principal Secretary and Devolution Secretary Julius Korir over various irregularities.
At the department of Correctional Services, the committee wants the Accounting Officer during the Financial Year under review (2017/18) to be surcharged for failure to account for food ration worth Sh69.8 million and for committing offenses of financial misconduct pursuant to section as contained in the PFM act.
At the Ministry of Lands, the committee wants that within the next three months of the adoption of the report, the accounting officer should give a report on the status of the machines to the National Assembly.
