The Public Accounts Committee chaired by Hon Opiyo Wandayi, MP (Ugunja) today held a meeting with the Principal Secretary, State Department of Interior and Citizen Services Dr. Eng Karanja Kibicho.
The meeting, was for the PS and his team to respond to audit queries raised by the office of the Auditor-General on the State Department’s expenditure in the Financial year 2019/2020.
Some of the issues that the Committee sought explanations for include:
i) Unreconciled variances between the financial statements and the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) trial balances
ii) Long outstanding balances in bank reconciliation statements totaling over 1.7Billion whose accuracy could not be ascertained.
iii) Pending Bills of over 3.7 Billion that were not settled in the period under review, but were carried forward to the next financial year 2020/2021. The PS told the legislators that 2.7 Billion of this sum was already settled in February this year.
iv) Late exchequer releases comprising of both recurrent and development expenditures, which delayed implementation of projects.
v) Unresolved Matters raised by the office of the Auditor General from the previous years.
vi) Fixed Assets register with nill balances, despite statements on receipts of purchases shows the State Department spent over 6.5 Billion in acquisition of assets.
vii) Provision of Medical Insurance Cover for police officers by the National Hospital Insurance Fund for a period of two years at the value of over 4.78 Billion, with questions being raised as to whether the Department really got value for money.
Other issues discussed during the meeting include: Avoidable payment of legal claims penalties and interests, Long outstanding arrears of revenue, Lack of ownership documents for Mombasa police station, Unsupported payments to Internally Displaced Persons, Manual Collection of Revenue at Civil Registration department, among other issues.
