Heed auditor's call for stiff spending controls

Effective public finance management could be the missing bullet in the war against graft. Endemic corruption continues to compromise efficiency, slowing socio-economic growth and corroding public trust.

With a festering aftermath, the previous administration estimated that Kenya loses Sh2 billion daily to intricate graft networks - the so-called tenderprenuers and wheeler-dealers.

It is no accident that the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission and other agencies with powers to contain the malady are yet to make any significant progress, even as one third of annual budgets are wasted through graft and wrong priorities.

Because a lot is at stake, corruption has to be stopped in its tracks. This is why Auditor General Nancy Gathungu's recent calls for the country to rethink its public finance management framework could not have come at a better time.

The Auditor wants laws governing the spending of public funds amended to prevent looting of taxpayers' money, especially when State agencies are responding to emergencies.

She says the response to Covid-19 pandemic by governments globally - including Kenya - resulted in huge losses of public funds as State officials craftily bypassed the normal public finance management systems to enrich themselves. The country lost billions in 2020 as the government responded to the outbreak, with reports that firms hired and paid to deliver such items as personal protective equipment like masks and gloves delivered nothing.

Gathungu, who spoke this week at the side-lines of a meeting of auditors-general from Africa on illicit financial flows, did not mince words in calling for tighter controls. Blatant attempts at violating the law governing public finance have been with us for years and if allowed to continue, we warn, will drag the country away from what needs to be accomplished - growing the economy and improving the lives of Kenyans. The ball is in the lawmakers' court. These are no ordinary times. The taxpayer must be given value for money. Systemic weaknesses that lead to pilferage must have no place in this day and age.