The three day workshop to induct the 5 member Kisumu County Audit Committee came to a close today with the Governor Prof. Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o presiding over the closing ceremony held at Ciala Resort.
The workshop organized by the National Treasury in partnership with the German Development Cooperation- GIZ sought to enlighten the members on various issues relating to the job ahead. Key highlights touched on establishment of the audit committees, roles and responsibilities of the committees, Enterprise risk management, audit committee oversight on financial statements, the PFM Act 2012 and regulations 2015, procurement fraud, and corruption risk management, internal audit and audit committee performance measurement among others.
Speaking to the members at the closing ceremony, the Governor thanked the team for accepting to support the county in strengthening the audit systems. He stressed the need to strengthen systems of governance in order to realize any goals. He called upon the team to champion automation of government systems to ensure proper utilisation of public resources and accountability.
This he said will go a long way in the fight against graft that the public sector has been grappling with for a long time urging the committee members to take on the job with courage and feel free to raise issues and make recommendations where necessary for enhanced efficiency and productivity.
The County CEC in charge of Finance and Planning George Omondi acknowledged that both the counties and the National Government have had challenges with placement of the audit committees, a problem he says is being addressed by both governments with significant steps made so far.
However, he pledged to facilitate the committee to do its work to enable seamless operations of the committee.
Governments have realized the important role played by audit committees and are now embracing them to offer their support on implementation of external audit reports and other financial reports. Both levels of governments have so far put into place various guidelines to aid the processes owing to the important role played by auditors in terms of ensuring controls and risk management.
The training was also attended by the county Internal Audit Staff.
By: Nancy Juma
