Newly appointed Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has announced that her office is currently carrying a special audit on the Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) to address problems over variances in financial reports. – By Ramadhan Kambi.
Speaking in Kilifi town, where she was received by Deputy Governor Gideon Saburi, the AG said that variations between financial statements and the IFMIS does not only affect counties but also even the national government entities.
“There have been challenges with the IFMIS and it does not only affect counties but even other national government entities including my office. We have been raising this issue in various occasions with the treasury ministry and we shall continue doing so,” said Ms Gathungu.
She added that her office will continue to do reports as mandated until the matter is resolved.
“What happens is that if there is a variance or discrepancy, then the auditor is mandated to report until the matter is resolved and going forwards, we shall raise this as a global issue,” she added.
Ms Gathungu further said she will clearly outline the volumes of discrepancies to push for the treasury and the directorate of IFMIS to take action.
“When we do the consolidations for both the county and national government, we will have a clear paragraphs indicating the volume of variances so that we can push the national treasury and the directorate of IFMIS to take action immediately,” she said.
She told Deputy Governor Gideon Saburi who hosted her on behalf of Governor Kingi that with good relationship and openness then conflicting cases and audit query reports can be addressed with ease.
“I have asked my team to act with professionalism, report early enough of their visits and I also appeal to you to also ask your staff to be ready and prepared because auditing begins the moment you start planning for operations,” she said.
Eng Saburi said the county will continue to work closely with the office of the auditor general and cooperate with them to make sure that all the audit reports are done in timely manner.
“We have had a very good working relationship with your office and that is what we want to continue doing. We want to have a good engagement from now and going forward. It is my hope that the issue we have been facing in our IFMIS system is among the issues that will be addressed as you have told us,” he said.
Ms Gathungu took over from Edward Ouko in July this year. Mr Ouko retired last year, at the expiry of his 8-year term.
