Another report: Funds spent, but no proof; who's fooling who?

In yet another report, Auditor General Edward Ouko has questioned the unbridled misuse of public funds. The exponential growth in the misappropriation of public funds puts in doubt efforts to check runaway corruption that has come to be regarded as a way of life in Government.

The Auditor General's report establishes that 17 ministries spent Sh66.7 billion without supporting documents. The Ministry of Health topped the list of ministries with an unsupported expenditure of Sh22.5 billion. Further, it irregularly spent Sh24 billion without Parliament's approval.

Besides being unable to account for Sh22 billion, the Ministry of Transport overspent its budget by Sh77 billion. Imprests under State officers continue to be misused. The National Treasury paid out Sh228 million for a 1970 Ken-Ren chemical and fertiliser company that never took off. The report is a catalogue of flagrant abuse of the State's fiduciary duty to the taxpayers. It is impunity at its worst form.

Naturally, the big shots will come out and deny that though there are no documents to support the spending, the funds were not misappropriated. That is neither here nor there because despite the law stipulating that no money moves before proper documentation, year after year, we hear the same narrative of missing documentation and money spent.

It could as well be a case of public officers destroying evidence after dodgy spending. Even cash bail at police stations, according to the report, provides an avenue through which unscrupulous officers enrich themselves. Police stations in Nairobi failed to account for at least Sh60 million they claimed to have refunded to accused persons. Unclaimed payments amounting to about Sh23million submitted to the Commandant of Kenya police, Nairobi County, was not recorded. This is a reflection of what goes on at all police stations across the country.

In very many incidents, wrongdoers are coerced by unscrupulous officers to give up bond money so as not to appear before a court of law. It has also been claimed some police officers have their own cash bail receipt books; a claim that has been vindicated by the Auditor General's report that some official receipt books could not be accounted for.

Such scenarios, though on a smaller scale, are also common at County Revenue collection offices and other State agencies that collect cash directly from the public; like hospitals under the cost- sharing scheme. The spotlight that has been shone on county governments lately seems to have taken our eyes off the monkey business going on in the national government, where it seems more money disappears through the labyrinthine bureaucracy.

This points to recklessness in the use of public funds, informed by the knowledge that the absence of stringent financial controls and the reluctance by the Government to punish offenders will allow State officers to walk scot-free even when the Auditor General raises the red flag on misappropriation of public funds. The Government's accounting system is so loose it is quite easy to siphon off large amounts of money without being detected.

It was the expectation of many that the introduction of the Integrated Financial Management System would have minimised the temptation to steal because of the audit trail left by would-be "eaters". With the staggering figures, it is becoming increasingly evident that a serious rethink of the government accounting system is urgently needed. Anything short of that and corruption will continue to thrive as the Auditor General regales Kenyans with tales of misuse of public funds every year.