Report reveals how Nairobi is violating law on expenditure

Nairobi County Government has persistently continued to spent money disregarding the law, a report by the Controller of Budget has revealed.

The report on the first nine months of Financial Year 2015/16, shows that the county has been acting contrary to the constitution which stipulates that all funds raised or collected on behalf of the county government should be deposited into the county revenue fund account.

The report, which was tabled on the floor of the House on Wednesday by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), showed that the county had allocated more than approved in the budget therefore leading to conviction that there was spending of revenue at the source.

PAC chairman Robert Mbatia told the House that the county finance executive Gregory Mwakanongo had admitted the county had been spending cash at the source in a bid to settle outstanding debts to its creditors.

“The county executive has received several court orders compelling the county to pay pending bills dating back to defunct county council with immediate effect. This has forced the county to spend collected revenue at the source,” said Mr Mbatia.

Mr Mbatia said that the controller of budget had warned that spending at the source would lead to abuse as the process does not pass through the integrated financial management information system (Ifmis) and that authority to withdraw funds is not approved by the CoB.

Although the committee recommended that county treasury immediately stops spending at the source, the speaker failed to pose the question which would have allowed the Assembly to adopt the report but however directed members to review the document and debate it on Thursday.

Speaker Alex Ole Magelo said that the members had not seen the report prior to the session hence they should reconsider going through it and get solution to the perennial issue raised by the controller of budget.

“This is not the first time we have had the issue of spending money at the source, it is time members seek for stringent measures that we will put this to ends,” said Mr Magelo.

The committee has also suggested that an agreement should be made by the concerned parties on the settling of debts to avoid the use of funds before they are swept to the County Revenue Fund Account.

Mr Mbatia-led committee wants officers who breached the law and spent the cash to be held responsible.

“We recommend that the auditor general conducts a special audit to ascertain whether the county has lost any funds as results of spending at the source,” said Mr Mbatia.