The inconvenient truth: When the audit arrives after the theft
In many emerging economies, the annual audit has devolved into a ceremonial performance, executed more for formality than for its intended function.
While its intent is accountability, its timing renders it toothless.
Reports are tabled long after the financial damage is done.
Mismanagement becomes history, not averted disaster.
A 2022 AFROSAI report found that over 70% of irregular expenditures flagged in state audits across Africa were never recovered.
These documents, though thorough, often become quiet museums of avoidable dysfunction.
Meanwhile, those implicated have often resigned, been transferred, or, in some cases, even been promoted.
In many jurisdictions, the audit trails are cold before the ink is dry.
When the purpose of the audit is politicised and the timing irrelevant, accountability is not delayed; it is denied.
The price of delayed justice
Globally, the World Bank estimates that developing economies lose over US$1.26 trillion annually to corruption, mismanagement, and governance inefficiencies.
This staggering figure could finance the full infrastructure rollout of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) several times over.
A mere 10% reduction in fiscal leakage, achieved through timely oversight and early detection, could unlock over US$120 billion each year; enough to fund schools, hospitals, and modern transport networks from Dakar to Mombasa and Cape Town to Casablanca.
In South Africa, the Auditor General’s 2023 report revealed R54.34 billion in irregular expenditure by national and provincial departments; an increase that reflects persistent gaps in contract management, procurement controls, and financial accountability.
Health departments alone contributed over R4.6 billion, directly affecting service delivery in public hospitals and clinics.
Similarly, Ghana’s 2023 Auditor General report uncovered GH¢8.8 billion in irregularities, with an overwhelming 98.6% attributed to unpaid debts, locked-up investments, and loans unlikely to be recovered.
Some of these funds were intended to support water provision, educational materials, and healthcare delivery.
Worse still, many governments are increasingly spending (sometimes unknowingly) additional funds on legal consultants, some of whom have prior connections to the very issues they were hired to investigate.
This is a tragic irony: the system bleeds and then pays again to bandage the wounds, without ever addressing the underlying issues.
The audit’s tragic timing
Time is governance’s harshest critic. Annual audits are reactive by design.
They arrive after the scandal, after the speech, after the theft.
In volatile environments where risk evolves daily, a twelve-month oversight cycle is no longer fit for purpose.
India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) launched concurrent audits on large public projects, leading to 30% reductions in overruns and fraud.
The model’s success lies in speed; issues are flagged as they emerge, not years later.
Tanzania experimented with rolling audits in public procurement between 2019 and 2022, and found a 17% improvement in project completion rates and a 23% reduction in procurement irregularities over the period.
Africa’s reliance on annual audits alone is like relying on a rearview mirror to navigate a mountain road.
Quarterly audits: From surveillance to stewardship
Quarterly audits express stewardship, not suspicion.
They emphasise that public funds require continuous care, similar to private corporations' quarterly reviews for shareholder value.
Shouldn't governments do the same for citizens?
In South Africa, the National Treasury’s in-year expenditure reporting for municipalities has enabled quicker interventions in underperforming areas, resulting in a 20% reduction in audit disclaimers since 2017.
In Rwanda, the Auditor General's rolling audits of high-expenditure ministries, such as education and health, resulted in an 18% reduction in unexplained expenditures between 2018 and 2021.
The question of cost
Sceptics argue that quarterly audits are too costly. But this assumes ignorance is cheaper than insight.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that the indirect costs of corruption, including lost investment, litigation, and stalled projects, can exceed 20% of GDP in the hardest-hit nations.
In Kenya, procurement inefficiencies reportedly cost the country over KES 100 billion annually.
Even a modest 5% savings per quarter would justify the expense of more frequent audits many times over.
According to a 2023 African Union Anti-Corruption Report, nearly US$50 billion is lost annually through illicit financial flows, much of it traceable through poorly monitored government contracts and procurement.
Quarterly audits are not a burden.
They are a developmental investment, an insurance premium against fiscal erosion and reputational damage.
Serving politics instead of process
A darker threat looms over audit credibility: politicisation.
Many oversight bodies across Africa are increasingly failing to remain neutral guardians of accountability. Increasingly, they are shaped by politics, appointments influenced by partisanship, reports delayed for strategic advantage, and findings diluted for political convenience.
In Nigeria, critical Auditor-General reports have gone unpublished for years. In Malawi, audit summaries were edited before being made public.
In Zimbabwe, entire audit sections remain classified under the category of “national security.”
When politics manipulates the process, transparency becomes selective, and public trust withers.
Professional independence must be enshrined in the mandates of audit institutions, protected by legislation, and supported by reasonable funding and monitored by civil society watchdogs with real authority, not just titles.
The human cost of irregularity
Every “irregular expenditure” is not just a line item. It’s a child without a textbook, a nurse without gloves, a pensioner without dignity. In Kenya, KES 20 billion earmarked for COVID-19 relief vanished.
As hospitals ran out of PPE and medics went unpaid, the funds meant for national healing disappeared without a trace.
In Zambia, mismanagement of ZMW 110 million in education funds left rural schools without supplies. In South Africa, R10 billion in irregular health expenditure coincided with medicine shortages in over 200 hospitals.
In Liberia, audits revealed that millions of dollars in donor aid for the Ebola response were unaccounted for, while frontline workers risked their lives unpaid.
These are not numbers.
They are stolen futures.
Adapting oversight to the realities of today
Governance must evolve with the complexity of the world it seeks to govern. Political risks, financial instruments, and public expectations all shift rapidly. Yearly audits offer post-mortems, not prevention. Quarterly audits:
• Support data-driven decisions
• Expose risks in real-time
• Enhance budget execution accuracy
• Encourage institutional discipline
• Improve institutional confidence and private sector trust
Vietnam, Indonesia, and Chile have all incorporated performance-based quarterly reviews into national audit practices, with measurable improvements in fiscal compliance and public sector productivity.
Quarterly auditing is not an administrative luxury. It is a strategic necessity.
Audits as theatre: The performance of accountability
In too many jurisdictions, the audit has become theatrical.
A report is released.
The public reacts. Politicians respond.
Then nothing.
There is no follow-up. No enforcement. No reform. Just repetition.
When no consequences follow theft, the audit becomes an accessory to dysfunction, a loud, dramatic production with no resolution.
To be effective, audits must trigger:
• Institutional reform
• Criminal investigations where warranted
• Procurement system reviews
• Public communication of resolution steps
Real audits must lead to corrective action and institutional learning. Anything less is governance by illusion.
Final reflection: audit or repeat
The inconvenient truth is this: annual audits are no longer effective in isolation.
They are too slow. Too politicised.
Too reactive.
Quarterly audits won’t solve every problem, but they can disrupt the rhythm of corruption.
They can shorten the lifespan of abuse.
They can return accountability to its rightful place: the centre of governance.
Because what we uncover in December may have already buried progress by July.
In leadership as in life, the cost of delay is paid in dignity, not just dollars.
Clarion call
Let this not be just another analysis. Let it be a springboard for action. Africa’s public institutions must:
• Legislate quarterly audits for all ministries, SOEs, and donor-funded projects.
• Digitise oversight tools to enable real-time tracking and public dashboards.
• Create autonomous audit appointments, protected from political interference.
• Tie budget approvals to audit implementation status.
• Publish quarterly audit summaries in accessible language for public transparency.
• Enshrine audit recommendations into performance contracts for ministers and agency heads.
Let Africa no longer be known for its audit findings, but for its audit follow-through.
Because real governance does not fear scrutiny, it invites it.
And true leadership is not measured by the eloquence of annual reports, but by the courage to confront the truth in real time.
The writer is Chartered Director(UK), Governance Strategist, Chartered Engineer(UK), Industrialisation Advocate
