Senate team to quiz county bosses on audit anomalies

Officials of counties whose accounts were questioned by the auditor-general have been summoned by a Senate committee.

Public Accounts and Investment Committee Chairman Boni Khalwale told the Nation Thursday that letters had been sent to the affected county leaders highlighting the areas of concern pointed out in the auditor-general’s report.
“We want to fast-track this because the audit report was handed to Parliament late.

"Those affected should stick to the highlighted issues and avoid unnecessary delays by asking for more time to bring documents,” Dr Khalwale said.

He said governors are expected to personally attend the sessions that start next week and provide documents to support transactions under scrutiny.

Dr Khalwale warned governors against coming to the sessions to ascertain the contentious issues and then returning to their counties to “doctor” documents.

He said this was common where receipts for payments were missing.

According to the audit report, failure to comply with public finance regulations has resulted in massive losses of taxpayers’ funds.

“Besides oral evidence from the officials, we will visit the counties to verify that projects said to have benefited from public funds actually exist and are worth the money spent,” he said.

Some counties pay millions of shillings for goods and services before they are delivered while others choose to award contracts to favoured companies when the law requires that they be subjected to competitive bidding.

Some counties, Dr Khalwale said, approve expenditure on non-essential projects at the expense of development while others collect far less revenue than the defunct local authorities used to rake in.

RAISED RED FLAG

He said all this is happening despite the Controller of Budget and Salaries and Remuneration Commission raising the red flag that uncontrolled expenditure is hurting development projects.

Senator Mong’are Bw’okong’o (Nyamira, Ford-K), a member of the oversight committee, urged law enforcement agencies and the Judiciary to support President Uhuru Kenyatta’s stand on corruption and ensure officials found culpable are surcharged to deter would-be offenders.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich is among high profile government officials who have dismissed the auditor-general’s report while Deputy President William Ruto has suggested it be looked at afresh.

The report revealed that several government departments could not account for Sh67.7 billion during the 2013/14 financial year.

Mr Rotich said though most ministries, departments and agencies provided supporting documents during the final stages of the audit review, these were not taken into account before the report was submitted to the National Assembly.

“Lawmakers must rise above party and tribal affiliations and push for the prosecution of officials who misuse public funds,” Mr Bw’okong’o said.