Special IFMIS audit to address variances in financial reports
By Reuben Mwambingu, October 23, 2020
Reuben Mwambingu @reubenmwambingu
The office of the Auditor General is carrying out a special audit on the Financial Management Information System (IFMIS).
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu says the audit seeks to establish challenges facing IFMIS users and suggest interventions to address the recurrent concerns of variances in financial reports for both county and national government entities that have characterised the system.
Speaking in Kilifi county when she paid a courtesy call on Governor Amason Kingi, Gathungu observed that there have been frequent variations between financial statements and IFMIS at the county and national government entities.
She was hosted by Deputy Governor Gideon Saburi on behalf of Kingi.
“There have been challenges with IFMIS that do not only affect counties but also other national government entities including my office.
We have been raising this issue on various occasions with the National Treasury. We shall continue doing so,” said Gathungu.
She pledged to continue with highlighting the challenges 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 forward, we shall raise this as a global issue,” she added.
The Auditor General is seeking to outline the volumes of discrepancies to push for Treasury and the directorate of IFMIS to take action.
“When we do the consolidations for both the county and national governments, we will have 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.
Good relationship
The official urged counties to be prepared all the time to work with public auditors to end perennial conflicting reports that have been witnessed in the past.
Gathungu noted that with a good relationship and openness, conflicting cases and audit query reports can be addressed with ease.
The Auditor General said the moment a state entity makes a decision, authors a document and takes action, the document should be kept safely so that it can be easily retrieved when auditors come onboard.
“We shall have few conflicts during audit when we do this because with the availability of documents, the auditor will be able to discuss the issues, arrive at a conclusion which both parties will agree upon. That is how we want to do things going forward,” she said.
Saburi pledged to continue working closely with the office of the Auditor General to ensure all audit reports are done in a timely manner.
“We have had a rapport with your office. That is what we want to continue doing. We want to have a good engagement from now henceforth.
It is my hope that the issue we have been facing with our IFMIS system will be addressed,” he said.