By Renson Mnyamwezi
Taita-Taveta, Kenya: A senior Taita-Taveta County government official has been interdicted for alleged abuse of office.
The County Governor John Mruttu said the officer based at the defunct Taveta Town Sub County had already received his interdiction letter for failing to account for more than Sh2.5 million outstanding imprest.
The interdiction comes after an audit report implicated the cashier with abuse of office.
Mr Mruttu said the officer had flouted the regulations which require that imprests be surrendered within 48 hours from the date of issuance.
“We have interdicted the officer to pave way for further investigations. Anyone found misusing public funds will not be spared,” warned the governor.
In an audit report prepared by the Interim Head of County Internal Audit S. Gakang’a and obtained by The Standard, the interdicted officer had not fully cleared the balance and left the outstanding imprest unaccounted for.
According to the audit report the officer had taken various imprests from October 10, 2012 to June 20 this year and had not been cleared from the books of accounts.
Mr Gakang’a said the region had the potential for revenue collection but the revenue had been declining for the last three subsequent years, mostly on major revenue sources.
“The revenue has been declining because revenue from local sources is not fully exploited and weak enforcement mechanisms,” said the auditor.
He said most of the revenue collection activities are conducted by contracted agent where no targets are set.
“The county government mostly relies on the agricultural produce and timber from Tanzania where there had been drought. Poor roads contributing to traders changing the route using Lungalunga,” said the report.
The report noted that complicated road networking was making it difficult for the county government to collect revenue.
Porous borders between Kenya and Tanzania at Taveta district had also been cited as a major hindrance to revenue collection in the region, said the report.
“Although the former council have been updating and reconciling the records, there is a lot to be done to update the property rates records over the years from the manual system to computerization. The audit team did not get any documentation giving a proper explanation as to whether these adjustments were done within procedures and authority,” said Gakang’a in his report.
The auditor recommended that the county administration should put in place proper internal control mechanisms to mitigate the observed irregularities, and to adhere to the laid down government financial regulations and guidelines by taking actions on the recommendations on the report.
