Kiambu County Can’t Account For Half a Billion Shillings – Auditor-General

The county government of Kiambu has been put on the spot over an alleged irregular expenditure of more than half a billion shillings in the financial year ending June 30, 2019.

In a report by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu, the Kiambu county administration spent Sh551.8 million without supporting payment vouchers.

Gathungu noted that only receipts and payments amounting to Sh14.8 million were made available.

“Management did not provide any explanation for the failure to present the records for audit. Consequently, the accuracy, completeness, and validity of expenditures totalling Sh551,819,258 could not be confirmed,” the auditor said.

Kiambu county however explained that the vouchers amounting to Sh171 million and another Sh223 million are with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

“Therefore, out of the balance of Sh157.6 million, only vouchers worth Sh19.3 million have been retrieved and are available for audit. Subsequently, we do agree with the auditor’s observation to the extent that the balance of Sh138.3 million could not be accounted for and therefore we have written to the then accounting officer to explain the anomaly,” the county said in its defense.

Further, the Auditor General flagged the county executive for paying Sh235.5 million imprest to five county officers for purposes that could not be established.

The county spent the money without recording it in the imprests register and also allegedly omitted payments from the final list of outstanding imprests

The county explained that the imprests were spent on operational activities, but records on the actual expenditure items were not made available for audit.

“Further, contrary to the provisions of Regulation 93(4) of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015, the recipients were issued with multiple imprests, some on the same day, even though they had not accounted for previous ones,” read part of the audit report.

Kiambu acknowledged the anomaly, saying it has commenced disciplinary processes against the officers still under the county public service.

“For officers who are not with the county public service, we have written letters to notify them to account for the funds,” said the county in its response.

source https://nairobiwire.com/2021/09/kiambu-county-cant-account-for-half-a-billion-shillings-auditor-general.html