Audit reveals how greedy MCAs use fake claims to fleece public

Auditor General's latest report on 11 county assemblies, shows that little has changed in the way the devolved units conduct their business.

Whereas Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) are charged with the mandate to oversee the county executive, the reports indicate that they are still using all means, including subterfuge, to get an extra shilling from the taxpayer for work not done.

The report which was tabled in the Senate on Thursday and which cover the 2016/17 financial year, shows that the country has a long way to go in management of sitting allowances to MCAs, tenders, domestic and foreign travels.

NOTORIOUS

The report shows that these are notorious avenues which the ward representatives use to fleece the public of funds through fictitious claims.

The flip side of the frugal nature of the county assemblies is captured in the auditor’s report for 2016/17 financial year of Kericho County Assembly.

According to the report, committees of the county assembly held various meetings to deliberate on various matters.

EXPENDITURE

A sample of the 15 committees picked for audit shows that a total of 1,159 meetings were held during the year under review at a cost of Sh187 million.

Yet out of all these meetings only 18 reports and six statements were prepared and tabled in the plenary.

The Auditor-General Edward Ouko concludes that the residents may not have received full value for the huge public expenditure on the committee allowances amounting to Sh187 million.

DELIBERATIONS

The report notes that many of the committee meetings were not scheduled as there were no weekly programmes showing the business of the assembly and the schedule of the sitting of various committees.

“Most of the committee and plenary sittings were neither scheduled nor programmed as they did not appear on the website as required by the Standing Orders, therefore it is not possible to determine whether the meetings had substantive agenda of deliberations,” Mr Ouko says in the report.

ATTENDANCE

In Nakuru, even though the county assembly has installed the biometric system to identify and monitor attendance to both plenary and various committee meetings, an analysis of the system by Mr Ouko revealed some members of the committee were paid allowances despite not attending. In other instances, members signed in and within a few minutes signed out.

“Cases where members just clocked in without evidence of clocking out were noted. Despite the installation of the biometric system, in most cases attendance to meetings continued to be recorded manually,” Mr Ouko says in the Nakuru County assembly audit report.

WEAKNESSES

Insistence on the manual recording, he says, defeats the purpose of investing heavily in the biometric system which was meant to curtail the weakness that comes with manipulation of attendances, which he concludes is a waste of public funds and a breach of financial regulations.

However, Mr Ouko notes that committee siting expenses decreased by Sh19 million in the 2016/17 financial year. The previous year, (2015/16) the committee had incurred an expenditure of Sh78 million to Sh59.7 million in the 2016/17 financial year due to the installation of the system.

WORKSHOPS

In Nyeri, Mr Ouko notes the assembly used Sh128 million for domestic and subsistence allowances for the MCAs and staff during various workshops, meetings, retreats and seminars held outside the assembly.

“However the payments were not supported by appropriate documentation such as invitation letters, programme of the seminars and reports emanating from the meetings held.

The same case is reported in Nyandarua where the auditor questions the validity and value of the money used for domestic travel and subsistence allowances.

CONCURRENTLY

According to the report, Sh4.9 million was paid to members of the committee for meetings planned to scrutinise the 2017/18 annual development plan at the Lake Naivasha Resort.

However, a similar amount had been paid to the assembly’s Trade and Industrialisation Committee in which the same MCAs who are members received allowances.

“The scrutiny of the allowances register revealed that some members were paid allowances for separate meetings held within the same time when they were supposed to be in Naivasha,” Mr Ouko says, pointing out that it was not explained how a member could be in two meetings running concurrently in different places.

DOCUMENTS

While the County Assembly of Samburu incurred a Sh56.6 million on domestic travel and accommodation allowances the audit established that an expenditure of Sh10. 3 million was not supported with relevant documents such as invitation letters, bus or work tickets to confirm that MCAs were out on duty.

Similarly, the MCAs incurred an expenditure of Sh4 million on subsistence allowances while on foreign travel during the Women Caucus in Ethiopia.

However, the payment surrender was not supported by with relevant documents to prove that they actually attended the meeting.