TA issues alert over Sh1.5b unaccounted for by counties

Kiambu County Assembly. The county, TA says is yet to account for Sh61.59 million allocated during the transition period in 2013. [PHOTO: JOHN KARUME/STANDARD]

Kenya: Slightly more than half of the county governments are yet to account for cash they received to support their settling down in office during the 2012/13 period.

The Transition Authority (TA) yesterday said some Sh1.5 billion is still unaccounted for by 25 county governments that have yet to submit any expenditure returns for cash used for refurbishment of the governor’s office, purchase of hansard for the County Assembly and swearing in of governors and Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) during the 2012/13 financial year.

In a public notice appearing in the local dailies yesterday, the TA has given all county governments and county commissioners that have either partly accounted for or have not at all, to file returns explaining how this cash was spent, on or before April 30, 2015.

Figures released by the TA indicate that only 12 county governments who used cash amounting to Sh739.1 million have fully filed their returns to the TA. Some 10 county governments have not completed filing their returns having accounted for Sh554.9 billion while Sh60.9 million is still not accounted for.

Initially, county commissioners for each county government received an allocation of Sh2 million for refurbishment of the governor’s office, Sh2 million for swearing in of governor and Sh2 million for procurement of Hansard.

The amount disbursed for swearing in of MCAs was varied depending on the county size with Nairobi receiving the highest at Sh1.02 billion while the lowest was Lamu at Sh90,000.

Subsequently, each of the 47 counties received an additional allocation of Sh61,592,200 for infrastructure development, Hansard procurement and swearing in of county governments during this transition period.

County Commissioners of Kajiado, Kakamega and Wajir are yet to file any returns with TA, translating to Sh19.03 million unaccounted for, while 19 commissioners are yet to fully comply with the TA directive.

“The Senate and County Assemblies in exercise of their oversight roles are requested to ensure and confirm that the monies were utilised for the intended purpose and in accordance with the Government Financial and Procurement Regulations,” said TA Chairman Kinuthia Wamwangi in a statement. TA is now demanding that all affected county governments and commissioners file returns to the Authority, detailing how this cash- that was disbursed during the March-June 2013 period, was spent.

initial pool of staff

 

During the transition to devolved system of Government, TA conducted an assessment of the available infrastructure within counties and decided to send cash for refurbishment of county offices, procurement of the county Hansard and swearing in of officials to enable the affected county governments to operate.

County governments were to be responsible for prudent expenditure of this money in accordance with the Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) which was given to them by the Authority.

With the Assistance of the Public Service Commission and other relevant ministries, TA facilitated secondment and deployment of serving civil servants to act as interim county officers to all the 47 county governments.

This was done in February, 2013 and was aimed at ensuring that county governments had an initial pool of staff to enable them carry out their functions.

“TA is disturbed by reports appearing in the media blaming it on the usage of these monies by virtue of seconding or deploying staff to counties yet it is clear that expenditure of the same lies squarely in the hands of county governments,” said Wamwangi.