The Auditor-General Dr. Nancy Gathungu has urged the Trans Nzoia County Assembly to clear its backlog of audit reports before it receives the 2025/2026 reports, warning that delays could weaken oversight and accountability for public funds.
Dr. Gathungu said the Office of the Auditor-General would work with the Assembly to ensure pending reports are considered and recommendations implemented in time.
Gathungu spoke during a courtesy visit to the Assembly, where she met Speaker Andrew Wanyonyi and members of the County Public Accounts and Investments Committee.
“It will be important that we agree on a strategy on how to finalise these reports,” Gathungu said.
She said the Auditor-General is required to submit audit reports to county assemblies and Parliament by December 31, while the assemblies have constitutional timelines to consider them.
Gathungu said the approaching electioneering period made timely accountability more important because public resources must be accounted for before changes in leadership.
The Assembly has received 52 audit reports and finalised 24, leaving 28 pending, according to Wanyonyi.
The Speaker said the Assembly would clear the outstanding reports after the current recess, while Committee Chairman Simon Murey said the committee had already eliminated a larger backlog dating back to 2015.
Murey said only 12 reports remained pending and expressed confidence that they would be cleared by the end of next month.
“We had reports pending from 2015 till now, but we dispensed the backlog. The remaining reports will not take us long,” Murey said.
Gathungu urged the Assembly to consider older audit reports alongside current ones to prevent oversight from falling behind events.
She said reports for the 2025/2026 financial year were expected within three weeks to one month, potentially adding to the Assembly’s workload.
“If you have 28 reports and we add all the other entities that we are overseeing in this great county, then there will be some arrears,” she said.
The Auditor-General offered to deploy officers to support the Assembly during hearings and provide practical training on how to interrogate audit queries and obtain further information from witnesses.
She also asked the Assembly to share its hearing calendar early to enable her regional office to assign staff to the committees.
Gathungu said her office had developed a framework for tracking the implementation of recommendations issued by auditors and county assembly committees.
She urged the Assembly to use performance audit reports on issues such as flood management, agriculture and public participation in budgeting to strengthen oversight beyond financial audits.
The Auditor-General also raised concerns over possible overlap between the oversight roles of county assemblies and the Senate.
She said county assemblies should promptly consider audit reports submitted to them while maintaining coordination with the Senate to avoid duplication and delays.
Wanyonyi welcomed the offer of technical support and directed the Assembly’s clerk to share its programme calendar with the Auditor-General’s office.
He also committed the Assembly to capacity building, saying training would involve members beyond the Public Accounts and Investments Committee.
The Assembly raised concerns about delays in accessing audit officers and cases where issues cleared in subsequent audit reports remained unresolved on the ground.
