Former Tana River officials on the spot over Sh1.3bn

Officials in the former Tana River Hussein Dado's administration will have to defend themselves before the Senate and the local County Assembly over allegations of financial impropriety of up to Sh1.3billion.

The immediate former Tana River County executive is on the spot after Auditor General Edward Ouko said it failed to account for the money during the financial year 2015/2016.

In the report for the financial year 2015/2016, Mr. Ouko revealed that the expenditure in question did not have any supporting documents, thus putting into question the validity, propriety and completeness of the county executive’s financial statements.

UNEXPLAINED EXPENSES

He said the county executive spent Sh4,237,273.990 on various components accounts out of which Sh2,903,026,677 had supporting documents while the expenditure of Sh1,334,247,313 was not explained or reconciled.

Items with huge unexplained expenditures included those on transfer to other government units with a variance of about Sh416.2 million,  use of goods and services worth Sh358.2 million, acquisition of assets worth Sh298 million and prior year adjustment calculated at Sh122 million.

Other discrepancies detected were on items on grants and transfers that cost Sh85 million, compensation of employees that cost Sh43.2 million and social security benefits said to have cost Sh7.9 million.

“In the circumstances, the accuracy, validity and completeness of the County Executive’s financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2016 could not be confirmed,” the report says.

The former county executive is also accused of exceeding the authorized budget by Sh827.8 million on various expenditures, without the approval of the County Assembly as provided for in the Public Finance Management Act of 2012

The report also says the county executive spent Sh1, 395,142,918 billion in its recurrent votes, yet the approved budget on the item was Sh798, 801,033, giving an unauthorized expenditure of Sh596, 341,885.

The county executive is also accused of spending Sh229, 417,675 on various development projects that did not have any approved budgetary allocations as required by the Public Finance Management Act 2012.

“Consequently, the accuracy and validity of the total expenditure of Sh4,089,151,926 for the year ended June 30, 2016 could not be confirmed,” Mr Ouko said in the report.

He also said the county government failed to provide bank reconciliation certificates for a bank balance of Sh323, 557,528 million, reflected in the statement of financial assets as at June 30, 2016, and that cash books of eight out of the 12 bank accounts maintained by the county executive were not up to date, and had not been checked by any certified senior officer.

Mr Ouko also said in the report that the county executive also failed to avail board of survey certificates for the nil cash balance in the financial statements, as well as bank statements of two bank accounts the county government operated at the Central Bank of Kenya.

DIFFERING FIGURES

The Auditor General also said he could not confirm the accuracy and completeness of the expenditure releases of Sh3, 993,859,971 billion, as the amount was not tallying with that of the Controller of Budget, who had indicated the releases of Sh4,207,550,000 billion.

Former governor Hussein Dado is currently the Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Devolution, while all his County Executives failed to retain their positions after the incumbent Major (rtd) Dhadho Godhana found them unfit to work with.

Mr Godhana came in inheriting a backlog of 2.1billion from Hussein Dado’s administration, a burden that has seen the county suffer a cash crunch, with a number of contractors suing the current regime for delayed pay.

The county government has also had to let go of some of its workers, while some have had to take a pay cut as a measure to reduce the wage bill.