PAC wants counties to account for public expenditure

Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Opiyo Wandayi

Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) has said that they will not allow money to be disbursed to the county governments until an audit of 2014/2015 and 2016/17 expenditure accounts is done.

The Committee Chairman Opiyo Wandayi disclosed that the last time the County government’s accounts were audited is 2013/2014, meaning there are still pending audits by the Parliament.

‘’As things stand audits for 2014/15 and 2016/17 are pending yet it is a constitutional requirement that they must be audited, before they are given more money,’’ he said

PAC wants to establish all records showing debits and credits for the 47 county governments for the 2016/17 financial year before they embark on 2017/2018 disbursements.

This will enable them to trace counties profit and loss accounts and if the monies disbursed for financing capital projects was spent prudently as the law requires.

“PAC is keen to know generally, whether the Counties accounts are credited with debits and credits, and whether paid or not and why,’’ said Wandayi.

He claimed there is no rationale of demanding for more cash if the county authorities cannot effectively account for what they had received in the successive fiscal years.

Currently, the 2014/15 county financial books are pending for clearance at PAC, while 2016/17 is yet to be submitted and the counties need more money.

Wandayi disclosed that they intend to finalize pending House business on the scrutiny of the audit of government expenditure for the year 2015/16 come January 2 going forward.

He claimed that the Auditor General’s Office which is supposed to audit the Accounts had not yet received funding from the Treasury to audit the county Books.

‘’We want the Auditor General’s office to be funded to carry its audit mandate and allow PAC to review their income and expenditure accounts before fresh disbursements, ‘’ Wandayi said.

PAC under his watch, he disclosed will not condone acts of reckless misuse of the tax payers money by some of the extravagant governors who are insensitive to development projects.