Funding snags audit work

By CHARLES MOI
AUDITOR-General Gordon Kega says the lack of Government funding has affected its duties in going out to the provinces to do audits. “Every time we submit our budget to Treasury, we always get a budget cut,” he said. Deputy Auditor-General – corporate services – Albert Kimisi said they had asked the Government for K30 million in its 2021 budget but they only received K19 million. “That K30 million would have given us the resources to carry out our audit. Unfortunately because of the funding we cannot do as much as possible,” he said. Kega said personal emoluments for his officers were catered for. “But for us to go out to the provinces and to do audits, it’s a problem,” he said. “We are having a funding problem.” Kega said the Auditor-General’s Office was a constitutional office but they were not getting enough funds. “But the Government resources are scarce so when it (budget) goes to Treasury it always gets cut,” he said. Kega said they had a lot of audits that they had to catch up on. He pointed to the audits for the provincial services improvement programme and district services improvement programme funds for the 22 provinces and 89 districts which was a major task for the office given the limited funds available. “So that’s why the Auditor-General is unable to catch up with these sort of audits so funding is a constraint for us,” he said. “We are trying to do this, especially the service improvement programme audits.” Kega and other senior staff from the Auditor-General’s Office were at Government House in Konedobu yesterday to present their Section 19 report to Governor General Sir Bob Dadae.