Out of 372 Level Four and Level Five hospitals, only 209 submitted their 2023/2024 financial statements to the Auditor General for audit. Of these, 195 are Level Four hospitals and 14 are Level Five hospitals.
Auditor General Nancy Gathugu stated that the failure to submit these financial statements breaches section 164 (1) of the Public Finance Management Act 2012, which mandates that the accounting officer of a government entity prepare financial statements at the end of each financial year.
Gathugu noted, “Therefore, a total of 193 or 54 percent of Level Four hospitals have not submitted their financial statements for the financial year 2021/2022, while 163 or 46 percent of Level Four hospitals have not submitted their financial statements for the financial year 2022/2023.”
She added, “Failure to submit the financial statements is affecting our annual operational plans in subsequent years, as audit arrears increase our workload and audit scope. These arrears have to be factored into the current year’s audit, which negatively affects the resources planned for the year and subsequently the timelines for submission of audit reports to Parliament and the respective county assemblies.”
Gathugu also informed senators that some counties are not adequately funding their hospitals despite receiving remittances from collections, impacting service delivery. She urged counties to stop blaming delayed exchequer releases for accumulating pending bills.
She emphasized, “There should be a corresponding balance between exchequer releases and pending bills to the extent that they should form the first charge. If the pending bills are more than the exchequer release, then there is fiscal indiscipline. If the Controller of Budget has approved payment to a section of suppliers, why should it be voided at the tail end of the payment?”
While testifying before the Senate County Public Investments and Special Funds Committee, Gathugu remarked that counties receive funding for the entire year and thus should not have pending bills. She expressed regret that pending bills arise because some budgets are not feasible and therefore never adequately funded.
The latest report by the Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakang’o shows that counties owe their suppliers and contractors in excess of Sh156.3 billion.
According to the Budget Implementation Review Report for the county government for the first half of the current financial year, Nairobi County accumulated the highest amount of pending bills in excess of Sh107 billion.
Machakos county has Sh3 billion in pending bills, Mandera has Sh3 billion, Busia has Sh2.2 billion, Embu Sh1.9 billion, Laikipia Sh1.7 billion and Wajir Sh1.6 billion.
