Members of parliament during a sitting on Tuesday 11 June, 2024. Credit: Joval Tombe/ office of the speaker

Members of Parliament have demanded that the Auditor General present audit reports on spending agencies before the  2024-2025 fiscal budget is tabled for deliberation.

The call comes after a team of legislators that made a study tour to Kenya from 13 to 27 of April 2024 presented a detailed report to the August House on Wednesday.

The bench-marking tour was to understand best practices in parliamentary procedures and financial accountability from the East Africa region.

According to their findings, Kenya’s auditor general makes annual audits of government institutions and reports to parliament and interested stakeholders before a new budget can be tabled.

The finding prompted South Sudan’s lawmakers to call for similar practice in the country.

Reacting to the report, some MPs criticized the South Sudanese Auditor General for failing to audit government agencies thoroughly -with many institutions either not audited or partially reviewed.

“Before the next budget, Rt. Honourable Speaker, it would be important that the Auditor General present an audit report probably outlining the last three years’s spending.

“What we have been getting has been more general, and I think that was not adequate. We have never questioned why are some institutions not audited on what and how much they took and has not been budgeted by the national budget.

‘So, it’s important that this house call on to the auditor general report to be able to put all the institutions on records and be audited ” said MP David De Dau.

MP Mary Nyaulang agrees. She said such measures would enhance the legislative oversight role on public spending to foster better governance.

“Before the budget is presented to this house, we need to know the previous budget, and how the institutions performed on the budget line item, this is very important for us.”

On Tuesday, the Minister of Finance announced that the budget for the fiscal year 2024-2025 had been submitted to the Economic Cluster and would soon be presented to parliament.