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{
    "id": 927276,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/927276/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 182,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2960,
        "legal_name": "James Opiyo Wandayi",
        "slug": "james-opiyo-wandayi"
    },
    "content": "THAT, this House adopts the Report of the Public Accounts Committee on Procurement of External Audit Services for the Office of the Auditor-General, laid on the Table of the House on Thursday, 25th July 2019, and pursuant to the provisions of Article 226(4) of the Constitution and Section 43 of the Public Audit Act (No.35 of 2015), appoints M/s PKF Kenya to audit the accounts of the Office of the Auditor-General for the Financial Years 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18. Hon. Speaker, as I move this Motion, I want to start by taking Members to Article 226(4) the Constitution which states as follows: “The accounts of the office of the Auditor-General shall be audited and reported on by a professionally qualified accountant appointed by the National Assembly.” The operating words here are “appointed by the National Assembly”. This is one instance where the Constitution expressly gives the National Assembly the mandate to perform a function exclusively. It should be noted that, at the advent of the new Constitution in 2010, this provision of the Constitution was activated. In the Financial Years 2012/2013 and 2013/2014, the accounts of the Office of the Auditor-General were duly audited by a firm that goes by the name Baker Tilly Merali’s. It should also be noted that in the Financial Year 2014/2015, the audit was not undertaken because the contract of this firm had lapsed. Attempts were made by the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) to procure the services of the same firm to undertake the requisite audit for the Financial Year 2014/2015 and subsequent financial years, but it did not succeed. I remember vividly at that time, in the 11th Parliament, when I was in this House, in its wisdom, it disagreed with the recommendations of the PSC to procure the services of this particular firm for reasons – I do not want to delve into them now – that were elaborated clearly then. The upshot of this was that the Office of the Auditor-General went through Financial Years 2014/2015, 2015/2016, 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 without being subjected to the requisite audit as it is required by Article 226(4) of the Constitution. It is against this backdrop that the National Assembly reopened the matter of procurement of the audit firm to undertake this constitutional task - if I am not wrong - sometime in the year 2018. This new attempt also faced serious challenges. As a matter of fact, the National Assembly advertised the tender for provision of external audit services for the Office of Auditor-General The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}