Nairobi Assembly on the spot over Sh905m assets

Thursday, April 18th, 2024 07:22 | By

Nairobi City County Governor, Johnson Sakaja when he appeared before members of the Public Investment Committee and Special Funds Committee on April 3. PHOTO/Kenna CLAUDE

Nairobi City County Assembly is on the spot after the Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu found that it could not account for more than Sh905 million,

According to the report for the financial year 2022/23, of the Sh905 million, the county assembly could not account for Sh258 million for unsupported salary advance, unsupported Sh36 million for foreign travel, Sh12million for unsupported local travels, Sh279million unsupported motor vehicle reimbursements, and Sh310 million for misclassification of expenditure.

There was also no evidence the City County Assembly remitted Sh67 million statutory deducts for Pay as You Earn (Sh64 million) and Sh3.5million NHIF deductions.

The Speaker’s residence of the County Assembly of Nairobi City was awarded at a cost of Sh55,811,842 and a final completion certificate issued on August 26, 2021 in respect of the project.

During the year under review an amount of Sh2,028,303 was paid to the contractor as the final payment.

Residence complete

“However, a physical inspection conducted on November 10, 2023 revealed that the project was complete but the residence was not in use. In the circumstances, value for money on the expenditure of Sh55,811,842 incurred on the construction of the Speaker’s residence could not be confirmed,” said Gathungu in her report.

Additionally, the report exposes human rights abuses, poor internal audit systems, and violations of employment laws. According to Gathungu, Nairobi county was one of the counties that got adverse opinions.

Others ills in the report are irregularities in legal contracts, illegal procurement and failure to implement e-procurement.

Review of recruitment of staff members revealed that the county assembly recruited three members of staff but they did not follow the legal procedure. The three staff members did not provide vital documents including ethics and anti-corruption report on declaration of wealth and liabilities on first appointment.

“Their academic certificates were not submitted to Kenya National Qualification Authority for validation and authentication. In the circumstances, it was not possible to establish how the three were introduced in the payroll without documents,” says Gathungu. The report also states that the City County Assembly breached the law in the employment of partisan staff after they hired 200 against the set limit of 144.