An audit of the East African Community Secretariat has revealed cases of unbudgeted and wasteful expenditure, questionable payments and weaknesses in procurement management. The report, presented on Thursday by the regional assembly’s Accounts Committee and covering the year ended June 30, 2013, will be debated in the House this week. It reveals that the Arusha-based Secretariat spent about $3.4 million during the 2012/2013 financial year on uncalled-for procurement of air tickets, accounting for about 10 per cent of its total expenditure during the year under review. It was noted that such expenditure was a critical cost item on which management was expected to institute strong internal controls to guard against possible abuse. A number of control weaknesses including lack of authorization, unclear channels of information flow and lack of competition in procurement were highlighted. It was found that names of people to whom air tickets were issued differed from those on the authorisation forms; and employees were issued tickets based on meeting authorisation forms rather than travel authorisation forms. Tickets were also issued to destinations different from the venue specified on the forms. In the report presented to the House by the committee’s new chairperson, Jeremie Ngendakumana (Burundi), wasteful expenditure during staff interviews was one of the financial ills. It urges the EAC Council of Ministers, the bloc’s principal policy organ, to intervene and curb misuse of funds. “The Committee recommends to the Assembly to urge the EAC Council of Ministers to direct the EAC management to recover all the monies spent without requisite supporting documents and avail the implementation of the directive to the Audit Commission,” Ngendakumana said. The Audit Commission said the Secretariat contracted M/S Crown Agent to short-list candidates for 12 vacant project positions at a whopping $40,854. The Consultant submitted a list of qualified candidates, and made recommendations of the qualified candidates the Secretariat could consider for the final interviews.
