Public servants fail to account for Sh94 million imprests
Auditor-General Edward Ouko. He said civil servants are flouting the law by not accounting for imprests. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The Auditor-General also questioned outstanding imprests and advances amounting to Sh66 million at the TSC.
- The PSC also has outstanding imprests of Sh5,576,926, which should have been recovered or accounted for on or before June 30, 2017.
Public servants in ministries and State agencies continue to blatantly ignore the law by failing to surrender Sh94 million imprests.
For the last two weeks, the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee has been grilling various State departments and ministries over audited reports, and the query on unsurrendered imprest is a common feature in all the departments.
Failing to surrender imprest is contrary to Section 93 (5) of the Public Finance Management Regulations, 2015, which requires imprests to be surrendered or accounted for within seven working days following the beneficiary’s return from official assignments.
The Nation tracked five of the agencies that appeared before the Opiyo Wandayi-led committee and found out that millions of shillings in imprests had not be surrendered by the civil servants.
In the State Department of Irrigation, Auditor-General Edward Ouko, in his report for the 2016/2017 financial year, indicates outstanding imprests of Sh23,098,678 million. Of the amount, Sh10,968,632 has not been explained.
The report also pointed out that the State department’s imprest register is not up to date, and thus unreliable.
The report also found out that officers of the department get more than one imprest at a time contrary to the public finance management regulation.
In addition, in some instances, officers take imprests on behalf of others. In the Education ministry, imprests worth Sh3,05,370.80 had not been surrendered as at June 30, 2017.
The Auditor-General also questioned outstanding imprests and advances amounting to Sh66 million at the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), of which the commission got Sh39 million while Sh23 million was advanced to the Kenya National Council as AIE. Outstanding staff imprests stood at Sh3,798,497.
Parliamentary Service Commission, MPs' employer, also has outstanding imprests of Sh5,576,926, which should have been recovered or accounted for on or before June 30, 2017.
No reasons were given for this failure. The outstanding imprests include Sh1,083,341.40 for former MPs.
In the State Department of Trade, imprests worth Sh1,131,477 that should have been surrendered or accounted for on or before June 30, 2017 were outstanding.
