Auditor general to review timelines for financial reports

Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu. [Mose Sammy, Standard]

The Office of the Auditor General has less than six months to audit more than 1,500 public entities.

Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu pointed out that delayed submission of financial statements by public sector entities had caused the workload of her office to pile.

"We shall reduce the timeline given to public sector entities in submitting their financial reports for audit," she said after an engagement with the members of the Nyeri County Assembly.

She added that the transition of new governors to office has also posed a challenge, with those sworn in office blaming pending bills on their predecessors.

"This being a transition period, we shall conduct an annual audit to find out what kind of recommendation we can give to manage transition better, but if we can have accurate accounting, this can be well disclosed," she said.

She added that plans are underway to empower county assemblies to play their oversight roles effectively.

"We are working on separating the consolidated county reports to departmental reports so that county assemblies can discuss the 11 reports calling the chief officers instead of one big report, which takes time to prepare," she said.

Nyeri County Assembly Speaker James Mwangi said they pinpointed challenges they are facing in dealing with audit reports.

"Our engagement was fruitful as we have been taught how to deal will the auditor general's reports, especially on the role of duplication since the Senate has to deal with the same issues dealt with by the County Assembly," he said.

He added that county assemblies should have financial independence from the executive.

"When we have our resources, we shall be able to carry out our oversight role effectively rather than when county assemblies depend on governors," he said.