The Judiciary is among 11 government entities on the spot over unsupported expenditure amounting to Sh2 billion, a report shows.

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu’s report for the 2023/2024 financial year shows the amount comprised Sh783.9 million under Ministries, Departments and Agencies and Sh1.26 billion on Donor Funded Projects.

Failure to support or provide requisite documents for audit breaches the 2015 Public Audit Act.

That law says that a person who without justification, fails to provide information required under the Act or without justification fails to provide information within reasonable time or submits false or misleading information commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five million shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or to both.

The MDAs in question include the Judiciary, State Department for Economic Planning, Social Protection, Irrigation and Mining.

Meanwhile, the donor-funded projects include the Bogoria Silali Geothermal Project-GDC, and Financing Locally Led Climate Action Programme-IDA, Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project, Improvement of Rural Roads and Market infrastructure, and a Boresha Jamii Project.

Others are Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Project; Sirari Corridor Accessibility and Road Safety Improvement Project: Isebania Kisii-Ahero (A1) Road Rehabilitation; Africa Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Use of Insects as Food and Feeds Project; Global Fund Tuberculosis Funding Model; Horn of Africa Groundwater for Resilience Project-Kenya; Water Sector Trust Fund; and Technical Support Programme Project.

Accounting records

“Further, failure to support or provide requisite documents is also contrary to Section 68(1) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 which states that an Accounting Officer for a national government entity, Parliamentary Service Commission and the Judiciary shall be accountable to the National Assembly for ensuring that the resources of the respective entity for which he or she is the accounting officer are used in a way that is (a) lawful and authorized; and (b) effective, efficient, economical and transparent. Section 68 (2)(b) of the Act requires the accounting officer to ensure that the entity keeps financial and accounting records that comply with the Act.”

It adds: “In addition, failure by the entities to fully support payments casts doubt on the authenticity of the reported expenditure.

“It is also an indication of weak internal controls and governance in the affected entities. Similarly, lack of accountability could lead to losses, wastage and theft of public resources.”

Regarding the Judiciary, the report says it has unsupported expenditures amounting to Sh406.7 million on personal allowances of Sh182.39 million, leave allowances of Sh131.3 million, and foreign travel of Sh93 million.

The Economic Planning department has unsupported training expenses of Sh195.2 million, while the Social Protection unit has unsupported expenditure of Sh16.18 million comprising domestic travel and subsistence of Sh986 million, cash payments of Sh41.28 million, and fuel and lubricants of Sh25.27 million.

The Irrigation department has unsupported fuel expenditures of Sh9 million, while Mining has unsupported use of goods amounting to Sh7.63 million.

Donor projects

With regard to donor projects, the report shows that the Bogoria Silali Geothermal Project has unsupported expenditures amounting to Sh980.9 million, out of which Sh 535.6 million is for National Oil of Kenya and Sh445.29 million for Galana Energies Ltd.

The project relating to the Financing Locally Led Climate Action Programme has unsupported domestic travel and subsistence allowance expenditures of Sh123 million, while the Secondary Education Quality Improvement Project has unsupported spending of Sh60 .3 million as the consultants hired did not have clerks of works to supervise construction works as required in the contract.

Removed structures

The Improvement of Rural Roads and Market infrastructure project under the Kenya Rural Roads Authority has unsupported consultancy services of Sh35 million, the USAID Boresha Jamii Project has unsupported fringe benefits of Sh23.6 million, the Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Project has unsupported overpayment of Sh17.8 million, while the Sirari Corridor Accessibility and Road Safety Improvement Project: Isebania-Kisii-Ahero (A1) Road Rehabilitation project has unsupported expenditures amounting to Sh15 million that was paid as part of compensation for loss of business to persons who had built structures on a road reserve at the Daraja Mbili-Nyamataro-Kisii town-Suneka Junction.

The Africa Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Use of Insects as Food and Feeds Project has unsupported field activities expenses amounting to Sh2.86 million, the Global Fund Tuberculosis Funding Model project has unsupported training services expenditures of Sh2.81 million, the Horn of Africa Groundwater for Resilience Project-Kenya by the Water Sector Trust Fund has fuel expenses of Sh1.5 million, while the Technical Support Programme Project has unsupported refunds to the European Union of Sh914.5 million.