×
The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper print operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The Standard Group is recognized as a leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and international interest.
  • Standard Group Plc HQ Office,
  • The Standard Group Center,Mombasa Road.
  • P.O Box 30080-00100,Nairobi, Kenya.
  • Telephone number: 0203222111, 0719012111
  • Email: [email protected]

Judiciary put in a spot over Sh1.4 billion spending it can't explain

Parenting

The Judiciary is in a spot over missing hundreds of millions of shillings following what Auditor General Edward Ouko has attributed to unsupported expenditure, stalled projects, bad book-keeping and poor management of public funds.

The auditor is livid that while he was upbeat with the Judiciary’s plan to ensure Kenyans access justice, the strategies put in place were not well executed. In the report dated May 29, the Auditor General has raised the alarm over Sh1.4 billion whose expenditure could not be verified.

The first anomaly, according to Mr Ouko, is that the Judiciary pumped in Sh375 million to build a faster network to connect courts all over the country to the headquarters in Nairobi, and to the Internet in a bid to make sure services were delivered quickly. The Judiciary set up the Local Area Networks (LAN) and the Wide Area Networks (WAN) in different courts.

But when the auditors sought to verify the investment and see if it was value for money, they found some of the networks had broken down.

Pending bills

“It was noted that in some of the courts, Judicial officers were using modems in their day-to-day activities since WAN/LAN installation was not working,” the Auditor General noted in the report tabled Thursday in Parliament and seen by The Standard on Sunday.

The auditors cited Malindi, Mombasa and Kikuyu as some of the stations where they found modems being used.

“No reasons have been provided for paying for non-functioning ICT network,” said the Auditor General in his verdict.

The auditors also said the spending of money that had been put for domestic travel and subsistence expenditure (allowances) could not be verified. The amount in question is Sh377 million. When asked for documents to verify that Judiciary staff actually took the trips and used the money, none was forthcoming.

The Judiciary also told the Auditor General that at the close of the last financial year, it had Sh269 million in the bank. But the auditor got no documents to back up the claim that the money in the bank was actually a “surplus”.

“Bank reconciliation statements, board of survey reports and bank balances confirmation certificates from the stations in support of this figure were not available for audit review. In the circumstances, it has not been possible to confirm the cash and cash equivalents balance of Sh269 million as at June 30, 2014,” said Ouko in his report.

The upset for the auditors was that instead of clearing pending bills in its books, the Judiciary sat on the money, and then declared a surplus. It’s like having a heavily indebted company declaring profits instead of paying creditors.

The Judiciary, in the financial year 2013/14, incurred debts of Sh297 million. When the auditors visited in December last year, they found that only Sh45 million had been paid, leaving a balance of Sh252 million. When they looked at the statements of receipts and payments, they realised that the accountants at the Judiciary had declared a surplus of 269 million.

The auditors were given lame excuses which they did not buy, because the books showed there was money, but it was simply not paid out.

“No satisfactory explanation has been given as to why the bills were not settled in the year in which they occurred,” the report noted.

The lack of payment vouchers to back up a claim that Sh84 million had been paid to various companies that had supplied goods and services. The payments were made through the Judiciary’s deposit account. “In the absence of payment vouchers, the propriety of payments totaling Sh84 million from the deposits accounts could not be confirmed,” the Auditor General said.

There are also queries about relatively small amounts of money, say at the Nyamira Law Courts, where the books are badly kept and Sh965,752 could not be reconciled.

The auditor did not understand the Judiciary’s explanation that this was because of “a historical problem”.

Then there is a Sh2.3 million that is missing from the kitty that collects all the fees by auctioneers.

In Kericho, Sh29 million was paid to three contractors Tasco Enterprises, Sarit Building and Construction Company Limited and the Civil Trust Engineering Limited, but a physical inspection in December 2014 showed that the work had stalled.

Stalled projects

The money was paid to three contractors, even though the work was somewhat “similar”. Tasco was paid Sh10.8 million for court room extension and the erection of a public toilet; Sarit was paid Sh7.1 million for renovating the High Court, while Civil Trust got Sh11.8 million for courtroom extension.

There are also queries about the stalled projects for the courtrooms in Bomet, Wanguru and Othaya, where Sh81 million was set aside to build prefabricated courtrooms. The auditors are mad that the projects had stalled yet the contractor M/s Economic Housing Group had done little.

In Bomet, a contract worth Sh686 million for a High Court building was awarded to Bomco Builders Limited, but as at December last year when the auditors visited, the project had stalled.

The report will be handed to the Public Accounts Committee for review, scrutiny and to seek an explanation as to why the documents to back up the expenditure – if there actually are documents — could not be submitted to the auditors when they were required.

The Auditor General, however, gave the Judicial Service Commission a clean bill of Health.

Related Topics