By Peter Opiyo
Parliament was misled to approve unaudited revenue for 2007/2008 financial year even as the actual amount collected in that year remains unknown.
It emerged at the sitting of the Parliamentary Budget Committee that the figure of Sh397 billion presented to Parliament as ordinary revenue was raw and could not pass as the actual revenue. The Treasury is required to present actual revenue to Parliament and not unaudited figures.
The Treasury Financial Secretary Mutua Kilaka admitted that the figures presented to MPs were not audited, as should be the case.
“The figures presented were raw, they were not audited and these were the figures the minister used but he didn’t table them (in Parliament) deliberately. These figures must be the audited receipts, not raw figures. We apologise for this,” Mr Kilaka told the Elias Mbau-led committee.
This came as questions were also being raised over how much the sale of Telkom Kenya generated during that financial year. The Auditor General, Edward Ouko, who appeared before the committee on Wednesday said his office was presented with Sh11.5 billion as proceeds from the sale of the corporation. But on Thursday, Kenya Revenue Authority and the Treasury put the figure at Sh15 billion.
The committee is probing the discrepancies that arose from the revenue collected by the Government during the year. Parliament was presented with Sh397 billion as ordinary revenue while the Auditor General was given a figure of Sh466 billion.
But on Thursday, KRA Director General John Njiraini said the taxman collected Sh433 billion as ordinary revenue during the year, further bringing more confusion.
“We have a very strict system for tracking and monitoring revenue collection. We are confident that all revenue in our account is properly accounted for,” said Mr Njiraini.
reconciliation
KRA told the committee that it reconciled the figures jointly with Central Bank of Kenya and the Treasury. Though the Treasury indicated it reconciled the figures after the Controller and Auditor General had presented its report to Parliament, it was unable to give the actual money collected as revenue and sought to be given more time.
KRA maintained that its figures were accurate as they were able to identify all the discrepancies with all the parties when they reconciled the accounts. When Gwassi MP John Mbadi sought to know the reasons behind the discrepancies, Kilaka said they were occasioned by timing difference, uncaptured receipts, posting errors and unavailability of reconciliation systems.
