Monday 29th July, 2024
In a session led by the Committee chairperson, Hon. Gabriel Munyao (Kauwi), the Public Investment and Accounts Committee today delved into the Auditor General’s reports on the Kitui County Executive’s financial statements for the fiscal year 2019/2020, in a bid to uncover massive financial discrepancies.
The Office of the Auditor General had raised serious queries regarding unconfirmed opening receipts and payments balances, revealing a staggering deficit of Kshs. 430,517,141 during the year under review.
The CECM for Finance, Economic Planning, and Revenue Management, Peter Kilonzo, who appeared before the Hon. Munyao-led Committee, told the committee that he had constituted a committee to look into the matter and provide a detailed report on what happened.
Another alarming revelation was the unbanked revenue amounting to Kshs. 12,916,368, which was revenue collected during the financial year but unbanked as of 30th June 2020, contrary to the law.
The Chief Officer in charge of Finance and Revenue Management, John Makau, while responding to the query, told the committee that indeed the money was lost but has so far been recovered. “I wrote a letter to Human Resources authorizing the recovery of the said amount from the officers involved in the malpractice. I can report that 99% of the money has been recovered,” said Chief Officer Makau.
Hon. Munyao termed the incident as criminal in nature and called for the sacking of the officers involved. “If the County can lose such an amount of money through corrupt officers, then as a county we will not be able to meet our own source revenue targets.” Hon. Munyao said.
Mr. Makau assured the committee that the ministry is in the process of automating their systems to seal all loopholes in the future.
The Committee also brought to light the Auditor General’s query on the unsupported cost of temporary employees, where an amount of Kshs. 420,068,878 relating to basic wages of temporary employees had no documentation.
The team from the executive led by CECM Kilonzo failed to provide supporting documents for the said expenditure and requested more time to avail the documents. “We are giving you and your team two weeks to furnish this committee with the requisite documents supporting this expenditure,” Hon. Munyao told CECM Kilonzo.
Other audit queries from the Office of the Auditor General included the variance between financial statements and IFMIS balances, unsupported use of goods and services, and own generated revenue from the ballast crusher at Kwa Kilui and the cabro processing plant at Manyenyoni Youth Training Centre which, according to the report, is not incorporated in the financial statements.
Ends///.
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