County Governors with wastage of funds to face Senate, Says Kajwang.

 County Public Accounts and Investments Committee Chairman in the Senate Moses Kajwang address the press on the sidelines of the ongoing fourth annual legislative Summit in Kisumu.He hinted that the Senate will summon some Governors whose counties have engaged in wastage of public funds-Photo By Dickson Odhiambo.

 By Dickson Odhiambo.

April 17, 2019.

County Governors with wastage of funds to face Senate, Says Kajwang.

ALL the Governors across the country whose counties have been involved in wastage of Public funds will face Senate after being summoned.

This was revealed as senate plans to summon governors of counties involved in wastage of public funds.

County Public Investment and Accounts Committee in the Senate Chairman Moses Kajwang said governors affected will face the committee to explain why there is wastage of public funds in their counties.

Speaking during the Fourth Annual Legislative Summit for Senate and County Assembly Members across the country, Kajwang said the committee after the summons will consider passing a resolution to stop funding those counties who have been mentioned in the wastage of taxpayers’ money in an effort to protect public funds.

Kajwang said already sent out scheduled for governors whose counties have audit queries to appear before the committee.

During this fourth Legislative Summit held in Kisumu, it deliberated on the assessing the existing financial oversight process at the national and county levels of government.

Kajwang said the Senate want to test the constitution particularly the provision on withholding of funds on counties with persistent material breaches.

“During the session when those Governors appear before the Committee, will start with counties with disclaimer and adverse opinion in accordance to the Auditor General report,” Kajwang said.

He stated that if a county has had disclaimer and adverse opinion for the last five years then there is no reason why public fund should continue to be given to such a county, adding it will still lead to more wastage of more public funds.

 “Such counties with disclaimer and adverse opinion as per the Auditor’s General Report should receive funds only after they put in place a recovery plan, measures and systems to ensure public funds shall be prudently utilized,” the Committee Chairman said.

He said this is something that the senate is going to implement in this financial year.

Kajwang questioned how Makueni and Laikipia counties got unqualified opinion in the Auditor's report yet the situation on the ground is wanting.

“The Auditor General tells us that audit opinion are improving and indeed if you look at the last financial year there were two counties with unqualified opinion that is Makueni and Laikipia ,” he said.

The Homa Bay Senator said some accounting officers have mastered the work to respond accurately to the Auditor's questions yet public funds continue to be mismanaged.

 “There were few counties with disclaimer opinion, the questions is, are this counties run better? Are saying that because Makueni has an unqualified opinion, there is no poverty and thefts or there’s no inefficiency?” he asked.

Kajwang said the Senate will focused and committed to its oversight role to ensure funds disbursed to the counties are prudently used for the intended purposes.

He challenged MCAs to effectively conduct their oversight role to prevent wastage of public resources in counties.

Kajwang’s sentiments comes barely a few weeks after Several counties have been put on spot for alleged mismanagement of funds according to the latest audit report from the office of the Auditor General.

For instance, Kisumu County spent Sh3.3billion on salaries as per the Auditor General Edward Ouko’s report of 2017/2018 financial year.

The expenditure is 42 per cent of the total county revenue for the financial year ending June 30, 2018.  The amount is more than the recommended maximum of 35 per cent, Ouko says in his report for financial year 2017-18.

“The wage bill goes contrary to Public Finance Management Regulations of 2015 that recommends a maximum of 35 per cent," Ouko said in the Audit Report.

The report also shows an unexplained discrepancy of Sh156.8 million between the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database system, manual payroll and the financial statement's amount.

Kisumu cannot also account for Sh5billion in the 2016-17 financial year. Former Governor Jack Ranguma’s administration operated 112 banks accounts, many of which were secret.

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