MEFMI trains OAG Kenya staff on public debt audit

The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) in Kenya recently established a Public Debt Audit Directorate to enable efficient and effective audit of public debt. The establishment of this department was cognisant of the importance of enhancing transparency and accountability in the use of borrowed resources and management of public debt through strengthening the oversight roles of supreme audit institutions.

To enhance the capacity of the newly established Directorate, the OAG’s office requested MEFMI to train its officials on Public Debt Audit during the period 1 to 12 November 2021. The workshop was delivered virtually through Zoom and comprised PowerPoint presentations, plenary discussions and case studies. Participants were first introduced to the key public debt management issues which provided the context for the subsequent audit sessions. Thereafter, the presentations focused on practical concepts of public debt audit. Two (2) days were dedicated to practical work during which participants were divided into two (2) groups to discuss a case study on selected audit topics. The groups were required to apply the concepts learnt during the lectures to prepare an audit design matrix which would comprise the audit objectives, questions, criteria, sources of information, limitations as well as expected conclusions and recommendations. Thereafter, participants made presentations on their assigned case studies to the plenary.

A total of 24 officials (13 females and 11 males) participated in the training. These were mainly from the new Public Audit Directorate, with a few from the performance audit, quality assurance and financial audit departments. The workshop imparted knowledge and practical skills for conducting comprehensive public debt auditing, including financial, performance and compliance. It also introduced participants to the conceptual issues in sovereign debt management, performance standards and sound practices in auditing public debt.  MEFMI expects the participants to use the knowledge gained from the workshop to conduct comprehensive audits of public debt management processes in Kenya.

The workshop was facilitated by six (6) resource persons, namely Mr Jacob Mkandawire of the Bank of Zambia, Dr Felister Kivisi of the Trade and Development Bank and a MEFMI Graduate Fellow, Ms Josephine Tito  of MEFMI, Ms Josephine Warega (a MEFMI trained trainer from OAG-Kenya) and Mr Boniface Mukwenga from OAG-Zimbabwe. Mr Mac Banda from the Commonwealth Secretariat introduced participants to the new debt management system known as CS-Meridian.