Counties faulted for tender laws breach
The Auditor General has put some former governors and current ones on the spot for breach of procurement laws and failing to support expenditure with relevant documents.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, in her latest report on the County Executive of Murang’a, Kirinyaga and Kiambu for the year ending June 30, 2021, notes that the former governors presided over unsupported expenditure, accrued pending bills with unreconciled variances and failed to provide payment vouchers for goods and services incurred.
The counties were led by former Governors Mwangi Wa Iria (Murang’a), James Nyoro (Kiambu) and incumbent Kirinyaga’s Anne Waiguru.
In Murang’a, for instance, the audit report shows a statement of receipts and payment for the year June 30, 2021, reflects total payments amounting to Sh7,854, 509,399, which includes payments totalling Sh2, 211,085,248 in respect to 12 expenditure items out of which payments amounting to Sh1,410, 729, 496 were not supported with relevant documents. In addition, the expenditure schedule provided for domestic travel and subsistence of Sh74, 615, 602 is at variance with the balance of Sh73,139,377 resulting in an unreconciled variance of Sh1,476,225.
“In the circumstances, the accuracy and completeness of the respective expenditure items as at June 30,2021, could not be ascertained,” the report.
In addition, the financial statements reflect own-generated revenue amounting to Sh620,011,720 that includes revenue of Sh104,427,094 generated from hospitals and health centres and Sh24,866,755 collected by Public Health Department through M-pesa and direct banking to specific accounts.
However, the County Executive Management did not provide for audit review, bank statement for KCB-Murang’a Level 4 Hospital Revenue Collection Account and the Gatanga Sub-County and Kirwara Hospital M-PESA pay bill statements.
Financial statements
Report further shows that compensation of employees’ expenditure totalling Sh3,376,207,299 but the County Executive of Murang’a payroll reflects an expenditure of Sh3,592,079,003 resulting in an unreconciled variance of Sh215,376,299.
According to the report, the respective payment vouchers were not provided for audit and that the accuracy and validity of the compensation of employees could not be confirmed. In addition, the financial statements also reflect pending bills totalling Sh1.9 billion consisting of Sh1.6 billion and Sh261.3 million as pending accounts payable and pending staff payables reflectively. In Kirinyaga, the Auditor notes that the statement of receipts and payments reflects total payments of Sh5,502,822,503, which has an expenditure of Sh61, 808,568 whose payment vouchers and supporting documents were not provided for audit.
“In the circumstances, the validity of the expenditure amounting to Sh61.8 million could not be confirmed.” Report adds that the financial statement also reflects Sh825 million in respect to the acquisition of assets and that the balance includes Sh127.3 million in respect of the construction of roads received on the form of grant from the Kenya Roads Board and used for the construction of roads.
However, the Auditor notes that no documents were provided to show that public participation took place in the preparation of the Annual Road Works Programme before the utilisation of Sh127.3 million contrary to the law.
In Nyoro’s administration, the Auditor flagged that county own generated receipts of Sh2.3 billion and that analysis of revenue schedules for the year under review revealed that the county collected Sh1.5 billion through the County Pro revenue collection system.
However, the balance differs from the detailed database report, which reflects a balance of Sh1.13 billion resulting to an unexplained and unreconciled variance of Sh404.9 million.
In addition, the revenue schedules and detailed database reports differed with the reported county own generated receipts by Sh855.2 million and Sh1.26 billion respectively. Nyoro is also put on spot over a balance of Sh399.5 million in respect of the National Health Insurance Fund rebates.
According to the report, details of how much each of the facilities was owed had not been provided, and failure to remit NHIF receipts to respective hospitals affects service delivery because they may not access quality health care services.
