The National Assembly’s Finance Committee has backed the Senate’s proposal to abolish the long-contested Audit Advisory Board, setting the stage for its removal from the Public Audit Act.
The committee has recommended that the House adopts all Senate amendments to the Public Audit (Amendment) Bill, 2024, including the deletion of provisions establishing the board.
The proposed repeal would end attempts to create a body whose membership included MPs and whose mandate raised concerns about interference with the independence of the Auditor General.
The Bill, sponsored by Ichung’wah, was Leader of the Majority Party Kimani passed by the National Assembly on March 11, 2025, and forwarded to the Senate.
The Senate subsequently amended the legislation and returned it to the National Assembly for concurrence.
In considering the Bill, senators deleted provisions establishing the Audit Advisory Board and outlining its functions and procedures.
The Molo MP Kuria Kimani-led Finance Committee has now endorsed that position, citing a High Court ruling that declared the board unconstitutional.
The court ruled in a case filed by Transparency International that the board’s principal function of advising the Auditor General interfered with the office holder’s institutional and individual independence.
It further held that the proposed body would alter the constitutional architecture of the independent office and undermine the principles of independence protected by the constitution.
The court also found that the advisory role conflicted with provisions stating that the Auditor General is independent and not subject to the direction or control of any person or authority.
The committee concluded that deleting the provisions entirely “may be advisable to prevent an adverse finding in courts on its unconstitutionality”.
The board’s fate has remained contested since the 2018 ruling, with the latest amendments seeking to resolve the issue through a complete repeal.
Under the original Bill, the board’s functions had been limited to advising the Auditor General on budget plans and estimates, human resource management and development, and other matters referred to it by the Auditor General.
Its proposed membership included the Attorney General, a nominee of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya, the National Assembly’s Budget Committee chairperson and two representatives from each House responsible for public finance and audit.
The Senate opted for a more decisive approach by deleting the provisions altogether, a position now supported by the National Assembly committee.
Beyond the board’s abolition, the amendments propose changes to the Auditor General’s mandate and the conduct of public audits.
Clause 7, which had proposed the establishment of a Public Service Human Resources Audit Directorate, was deleted.
Instead, the Senate proposed empowering the Auditor General to conduct human resource audits as part of the office’s functions, without creating a separate directorate.
The committee supported the change, arguing that establishing specific offices in law would be too prescriptive and could undermine institutional growth and adaptation to emerging trends.
The MPs said the revised approach offered flexibility while retaining the original intention of incorporating human resource audits into the Auditor General’s work.
The Senate also proposed expanding the audit functions to cover citizen accountability audits, compliance audits and any other audits the Auditor General considers necessary.
The committee has further backed a proposal to reduce the period within which accounting officers must submit financial statements to the Auditor General from three months to two months after the end of each financial year.
The changes are intended to shorten the reporting period and support more timely scrutiny of public finances.
Clause 24 of the Bill also introduces a requirement for an exit meeting between officers of the Auditor General and the accounting officer of an audited entity at the conclusion of an audit.
The proposed meeting would provide a formal engagement between the audit team and the entity’s accounting officer at the end of the process.
The committee’s recommendations now await consideration by the full National Assembly.
INSTANT ANALYSIS
The committee’s endorsement of the Senate amendments brings the two Houses closer to resolving a dispute over the proposed Audit Advisory Board. If the National Assembly adopts the changes, the Bill will proceed for presidential assent. The reforms would also strengthen the framework for human resource and compliance audits while shortening the deadline for submitting financial statements.
