Auditor General Edward Ouko's frustrations boil over

Whenever Auditor General Edward Ouko goes to his local pub for a drink, he comes face to face with Kenyans’ despair over corruption and misuse of public resources.

Mr Ouko says some of patrons look at him as he sips his favourite drink, a single malt whiskey, and ask him why he has failed to come down hard on the culprits.

 The plunder of funds in the national and county governments in ghost or poorly executed projects has caused the uproar from all quarters.

Among the concerned are the civil society, the Presidency and the public — all lamenting about corruption,   and this is why the country’s auditor is on the tenterhooks.

“I get so frustrated when I go to my local bar and the other patrons tell me: ‘You are the Auditor General, can’t you see what is happening on the ground? What are you doing?’ Everyone assumes I am everywhere, yet I have a very lean staff. I can’t multiply myself,” Ouko remarked during a chat with parliamentary journalists at a Nairobi hotel.

Everyone, including the Senate’s Finance, Commerce and Economic Affairs Committee, plus the Public Accounts and Investments Committee wants answers—answers Ouko cannot  give.

“The legislators assume I am everywhere. The truth is, I have no capacity, for now, to be all over, and that frustrates me immensely,” Ouko said.

In just under three weeks — by April 30 — the National Treasury will be submitting to the National Assembly, budget estimates seeking billions of shillings to fund the 2014-2015 budget. The auditor too will be getting ready with his report to reveal the use or misuse of funds in the 2013-2014 financial year.

Ouko is late in sending the report to the House — he ought to have done so in December — but he is working with a lean staff at a time when “we are auditing 48 governments — one national and 47 county governments.”

The Auditor General desperately needs the cash and the staff. “If we need accountability, we must put money into ensuring it happens. We need to be serious and decisive. If you look at the national budget, you will notice that it has been increasing, yet the budget for accountability has remained the same,” said Ouko.

According to experts in the Parliamentary Budget Office, there is a disconnect between the Treasury’s desire for “efficiency, effectiveness and accountability,” and budget allocations to not just the Auditor General, but also to the Controller of Budget.

“A review of the allocation to some of these offices is not commensurate with the intention of enhancing capacity. A case in point is the office of the Auditor General, which has been grossly underfunded,” the PBO noted in its brief to MPs. 

Shocking findings

In his last report, Ouko shocked the country when he reported that up to 30 per cent of the revenues — Sh300 billion — is often misappropriated as he exposed colossal theft, misappropriation and poor project execution.

The findings of the report were scrutinised by the Public Accounts Committee and many officials in high places, especially those within the security sector used to hiding misuse of public funds under the cloak of national security. They want him blocked from checking accounts for confidential expenditure.

They came up with a punitive Sh10 million fine and a five year jail term — which MPs upheld as deterrent — for the staff in his office who leak audit findings. The auditor believes the fines are meant to intimidate him.

His concern about the imminent official gag through the Bill — now at the Senate — concurs with claims by besieged PAC chairman Ababu Namwamba that the draconian clauses barring the Auditor General from scrutinising accounts of national security organs were meant to allow unchecked plunder of public resources.

It is not just the money that the Auditor General is struggling with, there are issues of integrity in the public service. He has seen people living beyond their means and knows that it gnaws at those who strictly stick to the straight and narrow. He would want to conduct a lifestyle audit, but that is not within his mandate—this mandate belongs to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

Ouko has been in and out of parliamentary committee meetings seeking a boost for his budget.

The fight for more money for the Auditor General has been raging in both Houses as the lawmakers reviewed the Budget Policy Statement — the three-year forecast of the government’s spending targets and revenue-raising plans that will inform the making of the budget for the next financial year. Ouko wants to hire more staff, buy office equipment and upgrade technology. His annual budget is Sh2.6 billion, and that is too little to even keep an eye on the national government.

The National Assembly heard his cry because the chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Mutava Musyimi and his 51-member team reworked the budget and gave the auditor an additional Sh750 million to look at the county operations, and the MPs approved another Sh500 million. The auditor wanted Sh1.22 billion for the job.  For their part, the senators are upset that they are expected to audit county government accounts yet the auditor has no money to make sure that the Members of the County Assembly and the governors spend public funds on projects that add value to the spirit of devolution.

The chairman of the Senate’s Finance Committee, Billow Kerrow (Mandera), and the County Public Accounts and Investments Committee Boni Khalwale (Kakamega), are all of the view that the auditor needs the money.

“The Auditor General needs more money. When he was dealing with the national government, he had a budget of Sh2.5 billion. When we added the 47 new governments, he got an extra Sh100 million and his budget became Sh2.6 billion,” said Kerrow.

Khalwale and Kerrow told their colleagues in the Senate that they have met the Auditor General to ask him why eight months after the end of the financial year, he has not submitted audit reports from the 47 county governments for review, yet the law requires a report within six months. “The Auditor General has confirmed that the main reason he cannot beat this deadline is because of insufficient funding,” said Khalwale.

Khalwale says Senate Speaker   Ekwee Ethuro has to ensure that the Senate backs the  Office of the Auditor General’s request for more funds.

Ethuro believes  Senators can work with their colleagues in the National Assembly to push for more money to audit counties.

“Unfortunately in terms of the figures, we, as the Senate, are disadvantaged in the sense that power has been given to the National Assembly on our collective behalf. So, it is a matter for us to assess what the Auditor-General needs and we make representations as a House,” said Ethuro.

Mutula Kilonzo Jr (Senator, Makueni) is of the view that the failure to give Ouko and his team money is likely to delay the scrutiny of county governments. He said the results of audit of the counties in the first year was “bad enough”.

He said that the Senate would soon be unable to stem the plunder of public resources. “By the time we deal with these issues, this Senate will be an undertaker of corruption and not a watchdog of misuse of public funds,” Kilonzo Jr said.

He said these could be attempts to sabotage the Office of the Auditor General.

“It is possible that the enemies of devolution and the “Al Capones” of corruption are sabotaging the Office of the Auditor General so that we do not get these reports... deliberate sabotage of this office is happening so that we do not ask the most appropriate questions,” said Kilonzo Jr.

As the Senate gets ready to rework the Public Audit Bill after their four-week recess, all eyes will be on how much clout they are willing to give the man who will keep an eye on the billions of shillings that the Jubilee administration will be using to fulfill its campaign promises.