Auditor General says Mombasa County spent Sh548 million irregularly

Auditor General Edward Ouko says Sh548 million allocated to Mombasa County Assembly in the 2017-2018 financial year was spent irregularly.

Ouko reveals in a report published on February 18 that the county under-utilised the recurrent and development budgets by 22.8 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively thereby affecting service delivery.

In the 20127/2018 budget the assembly allocated 44.3million for the development budget and Sh476.9 million for the recurrent budget, according to the report.

“In the overall, the county assembly underspent to a tune of Sh143 million or 21.5 per cent of the total budget allocation…this may also be an indication of improper planning and the management may need to re-think on its budget making process,” states the report.

Not traced

The report revealed that the assembly deposited Sh20 million in Chase Bank which can neither be accounted for nor traced.

The assembly could not also prove the validity of the Sh109.5 million pending bills.

At the same time, Ouko states that the assembly could not also confirm how it spent Sh3.8 billion captured in the financial statement.

“I can confirm that public resources have not been applied lawfully and in an effective way,” the Auditor General states in the audit report for the year ending June 30, 2018.

The assembly was allocated a total of Sh548 million, Sh225 million directly from the exchequer, and Sh299 million from Mombasa county government and Sh23 million balance from the last financial year. The report states that in the financial statement of the year ended June 30, 2018, the National Treasury released Sh525.4 million but the audit review of the bank statements for the assembly revealed that it only received about Sh225.7 million.

Ouko said this resulted to a variance of about Sh299.8 million which was paid directly by the county executive for staff salaries.

“In the circumstances the accuracy and completeness of the transfers of Sh299.8 million during the year and the financial independence of the county assembly in the performance of its oversight role to the executive could not be confirmed,” states the report.

The audit report states that the county assembly’s record keeping and accounting policies are suspect.