Auditor-General working within timelines to audit 12,000 public entities

The Office of the Auditor-General is working within tight timelines to audit and report on about 12,000 public entities, Deputy Auditor-General (DAG) Edwin Kamar has said.

Kamar said the office was constitutionally mandated to audit all entities funded from public resources, including private entities that receive public funds, making timely submission of financial statements important to the audit process.

He explained that  the Constitution requires the Auditor-General to audit and report to Parliament within six months after the end of a financial year, while the Public Finance Management Act provides timelines for public entities to prepare and submit their financial statements.

The DAG also noted  that the recent amendments to the Public Audit Act had shortened the period available to public entities to prepare their accounts, providing additional time for the Auditor-General’s office to undertake audits.

“Our audit universe currently is about 12,000 entities,” Kamar said during the Second Institutional Dialogue on the Role of the Media in the Oversight and Reporting of Complex and High-Risk Public Financing Instruments, organised by the Kenya Editors Guild (KEG) in partnership with the International Republican Institute (IRI).

The DAG said the office undertakes financial, performance, investigative, and special audits, as well as information systems and public debt audits, with public-private partnerships also emerging as an important area of oversight.

Kamar said performance audits, which assess the use of public resources, can take at least nine months to complete, while special audits requested by Parliament may require detailed examination of financial records.

He said the audit process includes examination of records, sharing of findings with the audited entity, consideration of responses and issuance of a final report to Parliament.

Kamar’s  remarks came against the backdrop of growing concerns over Kenya’s public debt and the management of public resources.

Senator Okiya Omtatah said Kenya’s Constitution had established a detailed framework for managing public finances but warned that the framework had been weakened by the manner in which the National Treasury was positioned under the executive.

Omtatah said Chapter 12 of the Constitution established key independent institutions responsible for protecting and overseeing public resources, including the Auditor-General, Controller of Budget, Commission on Revenue Allocation and Central Bank of Kenya.

He argued that moving the Treasury into the executive structure had weakened the intended checks and balances in public-finance management.

“The anchor institution is taken out of Chapter 12 and made a department of the Executive. And that is where we begin getting problems,” Omtata said.

He challenged the media, saying they had a critical role in scrutinising public borrowing, expenditure and government financial records, urging journalists to make greater use of official financial documents to track the movement of public funds.

Omtatah singled out the Statement of Actual Revenue and Net Exchequer Issues, which he said could help journalists understand how government revenue and expenditure were being managed.

He urged journalists to compare the document with the national budget to identify discrepancies and follow up on the use of public resources.

Lynn Odhiambo, Senior Legal Counsel Ombudsman Kenya, said that access to information must be balanced with circumstances where disclosure could compromise protected information.

Kenya Editors Guild (KEG) President Zubeidah Kananu said the media could only effectively scrutinise public borrowing and expenditure if journalists had timely access to reliable and understandable government information.

She said complex financing agreements, public debt and expenditure decisions ultimately affect ordinary Kenyans through taxes, public services and future financial obligations.

“Every time government borrows, every financing agreement it enters into, and every expenditure committed, the government makes eventually affects somebody,” Kananu said.

Kananu called for clearer procedures through which journalists can access public records, designated contacts within government institutions, regular technical briefings and accessible reports.

“Institutions need to clarify which information could legitimately remain confidential and what should be disclosed where public resources and obligations were involved,” she said.

Kananu emphasised that access to information should go beyond simply uploading technical documents online, arguing that public records should be presented in a form that ordinary citizens can understand and use to participate meaningfully in public-finance decisions.

She also called for the protection of journalists reporting on sensitive issues such as public debt, infrastructure financing and government expenditure, while emphasising that engagement between institutions and the media should not compromise editorial independence.

The KEG president said the dialogue should result in specific commitments, responsibilities, and timelines, rather than ending with discussions without follow-up.

“The value of today’s dialogue will not be measured by how good the conversation was in this room, but by what happens after we leave this room,” she said.

By Wangari Ndirangu