Sh72 million car loans to MCAs haunts Governor Awiti

A Sh72 million unsecured car and mortgage loan advanced to Ward Representatives in Homa Bay County four years ago, has returned to haunt the county leadership.

Governor Cyprian Awiti was put to task by a Senate watchdog committee on how the decision to give the Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) funds to purchase vehicles and houses was reached.

The Auditor General Edward Ouko in his 2014/2015 report poked holes in the manner the funds totaling up to Sh72,320,000 were released , pointing out that a Loans and Mortgage Board had not been formed for the purpose of managing the funds as required by law.

But the Governor who appeared before the County Public Accounts and Investment Committee absolved himself from blame in the matter, noting that he is not best suited to shed light in the issue.

“The Clerk to the County Assembly can respond well to the question. At that time county assemblies were autonomous,” Mr. Awiti told members of the Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang-led committee on Wednesday.

His answer did not satisfy the committee with Mr Kajwang and his colleague Charkes Kibiru( Kirinyanga) wondering why the county boss had not obtained documents from the clerk to show that his administration has no liability.

“It’s close to four years now, have you done any follow up with the Clerk, over this matter?” posed Mr Kibiru.

“We shall get the documents from the clerk of the county assembly to confirm that the county government did not suffer any liability. We shall avail the documents before this committee,” said the Governor.

“But I can confirm that the MCAs repaid the loans before the last general election. All the money was recovered,” added Awiti.

In his audit report Mr Ouko had also questioned why outstanding imprests amounting to Sh26 million was excluded from the financial statements of the county government in the year under review.

“It is not clear and the management has failed to explain the rationale in excluding the imprest of Sh26,407,668 from the statement of assets,” reads the report by the Auditor General, in part.

Awiti explained that during the time of audit, the documentation for the outstanding imprests were in the IFMIS awaiting processing of their surrender. He disclosed that the missing imprests have since been surrendered and included in the financial statements of 2016/2016.

The answer by the county chief was however faulted by representatives from the office of Auditor General present at the session, who told the legislators that the county government has yet to fully account for the imprests.

Senators Ledama ole Kina(Narok), Mithika Linturi(Meru) and Sam Ongeri( Kisii) said that imprests are the easiest way of siphoning cash from the counties, and suggested that those who took them need to be surcharged.

“The money should be like a loan now, since those who took imprests have failed to account for them. Public funds needs to be used prudently and all those who took money without accounting should repay,” emphasized Mr Kina.

Also questioned by the auditor was why the county government never availed a contract agreement for a payment of Sh1,628,083 they made to lease of premise in Nairobi County. The lease was also directly procured and there was no service agreement.

“We did make the payment for the lease of the premises, but have no documents. This is because the procurement of the said premises was done on our behalf by the Council of Governors,” said the Governor.