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{
    "id": 683511,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/683511/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 211,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "Hon. David Gikaria from Nakuru County; Hon. (Dr.) Makali Mulu of Kitui Central; Hon. Opiyo Wandayi of Ugunja in my County of Siaya; my great neighbour and friend, Hon. (Dr.) Nyikal of Seme and my great friend the Member for Emurua Dikirr, Hon. Johanna Kipyegon Ngeno, who has just made his contribution this afternoon. Like I said yesterday, it is indeed an immense privilege for me to Chair the PAC at this point in time. These are privileges that only the Almighty God bestows upon us once in a very long time. Once again, may I use the Floor of this House to thank the Almighty God the creator of the universe and members of PAC who have given me this singular honour to Chair this Committee at this point in time. Allow me to observe that the audit space has expanded considerably. In fact, other than the expansion of the audit space, with the advent of ICT, financial frauds have become more sophisticated. This, therefore, means that the need for special audits has become more of routine. Sometimes when people vilify the Office of the Auditor-General, they also need to understand our change in circumstance. Most of the theft that happens these days is not physical; rather it is driven on the back of ICT. We have seen that with what happened at the National Youth Service (NYS). We are seeing that with the question surrounding Eurobond. I think the best that this House can do for this country is not just to give the Office of the Auditor-General the financial resources that it needs, but also to give it the capacity and jealously guard the independence of that office so that it can get into these detailed audits on behalf of Parliament. The Auditor- General, if you look at the construct of the Constitution, is a consultant for Parliament. As a House, we have to look at this issue of capacitating the Office of the Auditor-General, both in terms of human resource and finances so that it can do its work properly. I have just made a general remark on the IFMIS. Most people, perhaps, are not aware that this system has been with us for nearly 20 years. The intention of this system was to ensure prudent use of public funds in all sectors of the Government. That is why it is called ‘integrated’. It is very disappointing that, despite the fact that large amounts of money have gone into this system, there is reason to believe that the IFMIS that we have in Kenya today is neither integrated nor can it manage anything. If you look at the scandals that happened at the NYS, you will find that it is very doubtful that a system which is supposed to track all financial dealings from the time of procurement to the time payment is made at the recipient’s account could have failed so spectacularly to a point where people almost reverted to manual ways to detect the fraud. As a House and as a Committee, we are going to call for an independent and detailed financial, technical and ICT audit of this IFMIS with a view to finding out whether Kenyans have got value for money and what the IFMIS system has done to improve financial management in the public sector. The concern is that this system has not been helpful in any way in enabling us to manage our financial systems accordingly. During the course of these investigations, the other concern that arose is the tendency of the use of the court system to escape accountability. We had a meeting with what we called ‘the Big Nine’, which brought together the heads of the Executive, Parliament, Judiciary, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI), the Controller of Budget and the Auditor-General. One of the sticking issues of the meeting was the habit by Accounting Officers and those involved in financial impropriety to use the court system to avoid accountability. This is a major weak link. We have to respect the principle of separation of powers, but to what end? Sometimes people who are clearly involved in gross mismanagement"
}