The Finance Ministry has not been able to recover monies given out as loans to some public sector workers to the tune of ¢11,005,582.

This was uncovered by the Auditor-General in its report on the county’s public accounts for Ministries, Departments and Agencies for the year ended December 31, 2021.

Per the report, the Auditor-General directed that the Ministry takes steps to recover the said amounts.

“We recommended that the Chief Director of the Ministry should liaise with the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department to have the outstanding amounts deducted from the salaries of the staff involved,” portions of the document read.

The report added that some “five accounts of the Ministry were garnished in 2021 as a result of cases
brought against other government institutions.”

“The garnishee order resulted in the accounts not being accessible to the Ministry.”

The Auditor-General said his outfit recommended that “the Chief Director should engage the AttorneyGeneral on how the accounts could be assessed and also ensure that the cause of the garnishee is investigated, and appropriate sanctions applied to anyone found culpable.”

Meanwhile, a total of ¢17.4 billion in financial irregularities have been flagged by the Auditor-General in its latest report submitted to Parliament for the 2021 financial year. 

This represents a 36% rise compared to that of 2020.