Omtatah pokes holes in Auditor General’s reports
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has launched a scathing critique of Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, accusing her of deliberately producing vague audit reports that fail to fulfill her constitutional mandate.
Speaking during a media interview on April 7, 2025, Omtatah questioned the reliability and usefulness of the Auditor General’s work, claiming that she routinely issues inconclusive reports that do not meet the legal threshold for auditing public finances.
“Because the Auditor General violates the constitution,” Omtatah stated bluntly when asked why issues flagged by the Auditor General’s office often go unaddressed.
He maintained that Gathungu consistently neglects the requirement to assess government programs for lawfulness and effectiveness—an obligation rooted in the Constitution.
“What I’m saying is that the Auditor General is supposed to audit for effectiveness and lawfulness. She never does that,” Omtatah argued.
The senator, known for his activism on constitutional and governance matters, expressed frustration with what he perceives as a pattern of inconclusive reporting from the office tasked with ensuring financial accountability in public institutions.
“If you look at the Auditor General’s reports, it always concludes that ‘We cannot tell, we cannot tell,’ and you see an audit report is supposed to be a complete document. It should be conclusive. So the Auditor General chooses to be vague,” Omtatah elaborated.
Similar criticism
Omtatah’s comments echoed sentiments recently raised in Parliament by National Assembly Minority Leader Junet Mohamed, who took issue with the Auditor General’s decision to release the Financial Year 2023/2024 audit report before it underwent legislative scrutiny.
Speaking in the National Assembly on March 6, 2025, Junet emphasized the importance of procedural integrity, citing the Constitution and the Public Audit Act as the legal framework guiding the audit process.
“The Auditor General reports to the National Assembly in terms of government expenditure. Auditing did not start today or yesterday—there is a procedure, and the law is very clear,” he stated.
Junet cited Article 226 of the Constitution and Section 41(2)(b) of the Public Audit Act, which require the Auditor General to first engage with public institutions and submit reports to Parliament for verification before releasing findings to the public.
“Parliament is now supposed to verify whether the audit report is correct or not. Until that is done and a report is tabled before the House, that audit is still not confirmed,” he explained.
He warned that releasing unverified audit reports can damage reputations and unfairly accuse public officials of wrongdoing.
“You will see now the Auditor General reports on a matter before it is verified, and before it is certified, it is all over the country saying ‘so and so has stolen this, this kind of money has been lost,’” Junet lamented.
He further noted that even when the Auditor General appears before parliamentary committees, she rarely clarifies that the findings are preliminary and have not yet been reviewed by the relevant oversight bodies.
“The committee of the house is the arbiter of that matter. The public servant who has been accused of malpractice and the Auditor General who is the prosecutor appear before the committee of the house, and everyone brings his or her document before the committee. Unless we have changed our rules and laws on auditing, that is the position as far as I’m concerned,” Junet elaborated.
