The Ministry of Finance has in a damage control venture urged MDA’s defaulted in the 2018 Auditor General’s Report to take remedial measures to address the issues raised in the report.
A memorandum from the Financial Secretary, Ministry of Finance dated 15th January,2020 almost a month after the release of a report that had calculated a loss of over 140 billion Leones across MDA’s, Local Councils and other public enterprises and Le 257.1 billion in shady procurement deals had urged MDA’s mentioned in the report to look at the recommendations with a view to address them.
The Ministry committed itself to looking keenly at monitoring actions taken on findings and recommendations of the 2018 Report by ensuring that timely consideration is given by relevant MDA’s to the implementation of the report.
The Ministry has threatened to take actions against entities and officers who will fail to adhere to the recommendations of the report.
Many are wondering how a Ministry which is mostly implicated in the report would coerce other entities to follow-up on the recommendations of the report.
The Ministry of Finance is purposely responsible for maintaining public financial discipline in the country.
Many have criticized the Ministry for stooping so low to be castigated for a number of procurement irregularities including the use of RFQ’s for procurement processes way below the threshold, undertaking procurement processes without advertising, procurement splitting etc.
Many are of the view that the Financial Secretary is originating such a notice to satisfy the demands of a World Bank Mission which recently visited the country to assess the continuous financial reforms of the government.