Auditor General Nancy Gathungu Exposes Government for Spending KES 147 Billion Without Parliament Approval

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has raised concerns over a steady rise in fund withdrawals by the National Treasury without prior approval from the National Assembly.

Gathungu highlighted that the unauthorised withdrawals, as outlined in Article 223, surged from KSh 1.1 billion requested in the 2014/2015 financial year to KSh 147.3 billion requested by the current administration in the 2022/2023 financial year.

This represents a staggering increase of 13,000% over nine years.

Her remarks came in response to a special audit report revealing that five government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) had requested KSh 5 billion for recurrent expenditure and an additional KSh 2.8 billion for development expenditure.

Despite being approved by the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o, these sums were not disclosed in the information provided to the National Treasury.

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“The most astonishing bit is that KSh 147 billion was withdrawn without approval of parliament,” Gatundu South lawmaker Gabriel Kagombe told Citizen TV.

Why MDA’s expenditure was flagged
Gathungu observed that six MDAs spent a total of KSh 47.2 billion, surpassing the amount approved by the Treasury as additional funding granted under Article 223 of the Constitution.

Similarly, the report indicated that certain MDAs had exceeded the 10% threshold of the appropriated budget since 2014, violating Section 43(2) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012.

She also raised concerns about the KES 7.4 billion approved by the Treasury for the fertiliser e-subsidy programme in September 2022.

“Although the fertiliser had been distributed to farmers, the programme may not have achieved its intended objective as the distribution of the fertilizer was not in time for the planting season,” Gathungu stated.
How Margaret Nyakang’o was forced to approve KES 15 Billion.

On Tuesday, March 7, 2023, Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakang’o appeared before the Parliamentary Public Petitions Committee.

The CoB reportedly tabled her WhatsApp chats with former Treasury Cabinet secretary Ukur Yatani, revealing how she was coerced to sign billions.

During the last weeks of Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidency, the Jubilee administration spent a whopping KSh 23 billion without parliament’s approval.

—Courtesy Tuko