Head of Internal Audit at the Ministry of Health Bernard Muchere described the leaked interim report that showed as much as Sh5 billion could have been misappropriated by ministry officials/CFM NEWS
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 22 – He began his presentation by quoting provisions of law from which he derived his mandate as though in an effort to prove that the “red flags” he raised with regard to the expenditure of funds at the Ministry of Health were discovered par course and not with the intention to ‘fix’ anyone.
“Innocent,” is how the Head of Internal Audit at the Ministry of Health Bernard Muchere described the leaked interim report that showed as much as Sh5 billion could have been misappropriated by ministry officials.
And while the Senate Health Committee before which he appeared for the second time on Tuesday did not have the patience to sit through provision after provision of law being read out to them, when they did give him a minute, he made sure his point came across: he did not need the security detail attached to him, he had no reason to be afraid of shadows.
His confidence, he told the MPs, emanating from the fact that even as he presented them with a final audit report on the “red flags” he raised in the interim one, he stood by his initial findings.
“No,” was his efficient response to Migori Senator Wilfred Machage who serves as the committee’s chair when asked: “You have given us a response from the ministry to your audit queries. Does it answer all the questions you raised?”
And while he did admit that he couldn’t, outside a forensic audit, as confidently state exactly how much could have been lost in the ministry, he was adamant that there was a case for its officials to answer; adamant that the law had indeed been broken.
“(The) law has not been complied with. Parliamentarians enacted this law. What was the objective?”
A cancer which by all indications, he said, wasn’t localised to the “red flags” that had sent tongues a wagging.
He was also, he said in the process of auditing the National Quality Control Laboratory, Government Chemist and Radiation Protection Department.
“The major issue we have noted is that they have payments which are pending but when you look at the expenditure, the IFMIS expenditure in the headquarters, the funds were exhausted but they still have payments they have not actually paid.”
The results of which he said, would be out in January.
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