REPUBLIC OF KENYA

THE PRESIDENCY
MINISTRY OF DEVOLUTION AND PLANNING
PRESS STATEMENT ON ARTICLE APPEARING IN THE
BUSINESS DAILY OF WEDNESDAY JULY 15TH 2015
HEADLINED WAIGURUS MINISTRY FAILS TO ACCOUNT
FOR KSH 3.2 BILLION BILLS.
Our attention has been drawn to the above article attributed
to the Auditor Generals Report of the Ministry of Devolution
and Planning financial statement for the year ending June,
2014 and wish to state as follows:
1. Pending bills - The Ministry had pending bills
amounting to Ksh.4.2 billion that was availed for audit.
It was clearly stated to the auditor that the Ksh.1.1
billion pending bills included in the initial statement was
what had been received in the accounts unit by the end
of the financial year. Subsequently, all pending bills
were consolidated, the schedule updated accordingly
and availed for audit. There was no case of loss and/or
failing to account as alleged in the above article.
2. The Ministry acquired Non-financial assets whose
details were prepared and availed for audit. However,
the auditor required the presentation to be made in a
particular format, which has since been done. There
was nothing out of the ordinary on this finding of the
auditor since similar observations were made by the
Auditor General about other Ministries, some to the
tune of Ksh.52.9 billion.

3. Bank Reconciliations and other Accounting

matters Discrepancies in records were attributed to
the timings between commitment and actual payments
whereby payments for the financial year go beyond the
end of that financial year. They were subsequently
reconciled and availed for audit.
4. The putting together of both Recurrent and
Development Vote in the financial statement is the
new reporting format as per the requirement of the
International Public Sector Accounting Standards and as
directed by the National Treasury. There was therefore,
no case of poor record keeping. This was not an issue
raised by the Auditor General.
5. With regard to Transfer to other Government
entities, this was as a result of the re-organization of
government whereby certain functions were transferred
from the Ministry to the Ministry of Land, Housing and
Urban Development while the budget of those functions
remained with the Ministry.
The audit process for any Ministry, department or agency of
government entails the engagement of the office of the
Auditor General in the provision of clarifications of issues
raised in the course of the audit process and the Ministry of
Devolution and Planning is no exception.
In our case, this Ministry comprehensively responded to the
above issues and other audit observations on the 4th May,
2015 following the Auditor Generals letter dated 29th April,
2015that gave us only three working days to respond.
However, and to our dismay, on examination of the final
audit report, we noticed that the Auditor General had not
taken our responses into account at all. This is also despite
the fact that several top management meetings had earlier
been held with the audit team in which the audit team
expressed satisfaction with our responses on most of the

management queries raised, but which were not considered

in the Auditor Generals final audit report.
Further, we wish to observe that the article in the Business
Daily is in bad faith as it appears to target this Ministry out of
the total of 18 Ministries and many other State Agencies
whose audit reports the Auditor General has also submitted
to Parliament. This Ministry has nothing to hide and is ready
with proper reports for re-audit if so required.
ENG. PETER OGANGA MANGITI
PRINCIPAL SECRETARY, PLANNING/ACCOUNTING OFFICER