IEBC interviews: Ngwele defends his financial management record amid audit queries
However, Ngwele assured the panel that if appointed IEBC chairperson, he would use his policy formulation and oversight skills to ensure proper financial management and prevent similar audit queries.
Former Nairobi County Assembly Clerk Jacob Ngwele defended his financial management record during his interview for the position of IEBC chairperson, distancing himself from audit queries raised in the Auditor General’s 2022 report.
Ngwele, who served as the assembly’s accounting officer for eight years, was questioned about his public finance management skills and the issues flagged in the audit report.
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The panel pointed out that the assembly’s financial statements had received an adverse opinion, with concerns over unauthorised allowances, excess payments, and legal fees exceeding the budget by Sh7.7 million.
Ngwele explained that he was not in functional control of the assembly’s finances from 2019 to 2022 due to court orders that required him to step aside.
“There were court issues from the period between 2019 to 2022. I was not functional. There were court orders which had decided that I step aside from the official discharge of duties,” he said.
The former clerk pointed out that the financial statements in question were signed by other officers who acted as clerks during that period.
“If you look at those audited reports, you will see the person who has signed the financial statement. You know very well that it’s the accounting officer who is supposed to sign the financial statements,” he told the panel.
Ngwele asserted that during his active tenure from 2013 to 2019, the Auditor General’s reports showed a clean financial record.
“In terms of running a clean and efficient institution in financial management, my period from 2013 to 2019 had clean audit opinions,” he said.
The panel, however, pointed out that even in 2017-2018, during his time as an active accounting officer, audit queries had been raised over Sh211 million in payments made outside the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS).
Ngwele responded by clarifying that the IFMIS system had not been fully rolled out to county assemblies at the time, which led to payments being processed outside the system.
“From the period of 2013 to maybe recently, the assemblies were not on IFMIS. The IFMIS system had not been brought to the assembly, so it proposed that payments be made outside IFMIS,” he said.
He maintained that despite the flagged issue, there was no loss of public funds. “The report does not say that there was loss of public funds,” he stated.
However, Ngwele assured the panel that if appointed IEBC chairperson, he would use his policy formulation and oversight skills to ensure proper financial management and prevent similar audit queries.
“I will assist the commission to achieve its financial obligations without raising any queries with the Auditor General,” he said.
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