Auditor general raises red flags in IFMIS as the purge on corruption intensifies

As the war on corruption catches speed, Auditor General Edward Ouko has raised some glaring gaffes in the system which facilitate corruption.

Speaking on Wednesday during the Devolution Conference in Kirinyaga County, Mr Ouko admitted that Ifmis is not efficient in investigating the use of public funds in counties.

“It is not the counties’ fault that there are these differences. Now, we need to go back and decide whether the Ifmis system conceived when we had the unitary government is still applicable when we have two levels of government,” he said.

He said that the information generated by the financial system is often inaccurate and gives a misleading picture of the financial status of regional governments.

DELAYED FUNDING

Every year audit reports released by Mr Ouko’s office flag huge variations recorded between Ifmis and the statements of their financial transactions.

Governors have also been up in arms over delayed disbursement of funds resulting from the breakdown of the system.

The auditor-general proposed that to improve efficiency the system should be split into two to cater for each level of government.

“Let us have the county system and a national government system and then come up with an interface to give county governments control. As we discuss devolution, we must also look into our ICT infrastructure to address the financial system’s connectivity issues,” he said.

AUDIT

County governments are always asked to give detailed explanations for the various variances that are noted by auditors during their annual auditing of financial reports and those generated from the Ifmis reporting module.

According to Nyeri County Finance executive Robert Thuo Mwangi, the financial statements are prepared manually from the bank balances and the bank statements which are adequately supported.

“The Ifmis reports on those balances are unrealistic with figures which cannot be supported. For instance, it is not possible to have a surplus that is almost equivalent to the budget for the financial year which is under review,” he said.

DEVELOPMENT

Governors led by Mr Kiraitu Murungi (Meru) have also been pushing for an overhaul of the electronic system used in government procurement due to frequent breakdowns resulting in delays in releasing money to counties.

According to Mr Murungi, the National Treasury has been blaming them for delays in disbursing funds with a hidden agenda of denying devolved units their deserved equitable share.

“Sometimes clerks at the National Treasury tell us that the system is not working and only release the money when it is very late, then we are accused of failing to implement projects,” the governor said.

Mr Murungi said that counties are yet to gain their financial independence given that every transaction requires approval of the National Treasury.

“When we review the Constitution we need to focus on devolving the financial function so that counties have the power to collect taxes and distribute the monies,” he said.

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