COFEK seeks forensic audit of Sh55B in Jubilee govt final three months

NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 15 – A petition has been filed in the National Assembly to order forensic audit on expenditure of public funds by Jubilee government between July and September.



The Consumer Federation of Kenya Secretary General Stephen Mutoro wants the relevant laws to be amended to avert abuse of Article 223 of the constitution which stipulates that the national government may spend money that has not been appropriated by Parliament



President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime spent Sh55 billion which was contrary to the provisions of Article 223 of the Constitution similar incidences will recur in future leading to further burden to the tax payer.



“The petitioner seeks to amend the relevant laws to bar outgoing administrations from spending any such public funds irregularly and make any other recommendations that it deems fit,” stated petition.



The COFEK Secretary General stated that the lack of accountability in the run-up to the transition from one administration to another was a matter of great concern.



“The Petitioner is concerned that expenditure of such colossal sums was incurred by the Government at a time when the country was grappling with a huge public debt, high inflation and a high cost of living,” stated the petition.



Article 223 also provides that government can also spend if a need has arisen for expenditure for a purpose for which no amount was appropriated by the National Assembly.



That need may be a natural disaster like floods, drought, a pandemic like Covid-19 or an emergency that cannot wait for Parliament to appropriate resources.



A document presented by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) to MPs during their induction revealed that the Treasury disbursed the funds without the approval of the National Assembly.



The presentations revealed that Sh23.1 billion has already been deposited to the various government Ministries and State Departments.



The Ministry of Petroleum and Mining has been allocated an extra Sh16.6 billion for fuel price subsidy, Sh4.5 billion to the State department for Crop Development and Agriculture Research for the maize flour subsidy,State Department for Basic Education Sh8.2 billion towards the Kenya primary and secondary education.



Also National Treasury has disbursed Sh6.1 billion to finance Telkom Kenya,Ministry of Defense was allocated Sh3.5 billion for the construction of a research hospital, Sh3.77 billion was allocated to the Office of the President with no details given on its expenditure.



Further Sh420 million has been allocated to the Ministry of Health for the donor funded projects, Sh139 million to the State Department for University Education for donor funded projects and Sh125 million to the State Department for Interior for security operations.



This raises the credibility issues of the budget as it worsens the pending bills issue that the government has been trying to deal with making the deficit in the budget a moving target.