UNDP audit reveals Sh6 million unbudgeted spending by Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife

UNDP Resident Representative Anthony Ngororano. (Photo: MINA)

By Maureen Kinyanjui
Thursday, June 5, 2025

UNDP has deducted the unbudgeted amount from the Sh35.8 million funding allocated for the project.

An audit by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has revealed that the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife spent nearly Sh6 million on costs not approved in the budget for a key project tackling poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking.

Due to this, UNDP has deducted the unbudgeted amount from the Sh35.8 million funding allocated for the project.

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UNDP Resident Representative Anthony Ngororano sent a letter to the ministry’s Permanent Secretary stating that the ministry failed to refund the ineligible expenses, forcing the agency to reduce the next cash advance by Sh5,969,000.

The funds for the project are held at the Central Bank of Kenya and can only be accessed according to an itemised budget approved for the current financial year.

The audit report highlighted several financial irregularities in the project dubbed “Combating Poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trafficking through an Integrated Approach.”

Besides the unbudgeted spending, the report noted that the ministry overstated expenditure by about Sh1 million due to double-booking costs in financial reports submitted to UNDP.

This goes against UNDP’s financing rules, which require payments to be backed by valid supporting documents to prove services or goods were received and payments not duplicated.

In addition, the report flagged Sh1.2 million spent on procurement without following competitive bidding processes.

This included Sh5,600 spent on lunch for the project management team during a meeting at Zero-point Guest House in Voi on October 18, 2022, even though the team had already been paid Daily Subsistence Allowances (DSA).

The audit raised concerns over spending on non-project-related items, which is against the agreement between the ministry and UNDP.

Such expenditures hinder the project’s goals to build national capacity for fighting poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking.

“The supporting documents indicate that the payments were not related to an activity aimed at enhancing the accuracy and completeness of the annual report and financial statements prepared for submission to the Auditor General, National Treasury and Controller of Budget for the year 2023. As such, the expenditure is ineligible under the UNDP-funded project," the report states.

The total ineligible expenditure amounts to Sh6,697,529, representing nearly 7 per cent of the project’s total reported spending. The report also noted that non-project-related costs totalling Sh5.6 million were charged to the project.

These included venue costs of Sh960,000 and Daily Subsistence Allowances for participants during budget review, costing, and realignment meetings.

The Combating Poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trafficking project aims to support the Kenyan government in fighting illegal wildlife trade by developing new strategies, improving law enforcement capacity, and managing priority landscapes sustainably.