Under absorption in development vote in Nandi County cited

An audit report has revealed the county only spent Sh570 million on development out of Sh2 billion set aside for the 2017/2018 financial year.

The report by Auditor General Edward Ouko revealed among others under-absorption of development funds, unsupported pending bills and allocations towards incomplete Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) centres.

The report indicates that 78 per cent of the development vote was unutilised and residents are likely to suffer a negative effect on the delivery of goods and services.

In a report on the financial statement of the executive for the year ended June 30, 2018, Sh2 billion was budgeted for the development vote but only Sh570, 151,348 was spent.

“Records presented for audit review indicated that a balance of Sh1, 526,148, 479 or 78 per cent was unutilised contrary to section 107 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 that requires the county government to adhere to fiscal objectives set in the budget policy statement,” the auditor stated.

Ouko also queried unexplained Sh57, 809,513 difference between recurrent budget of Sh4, 744,344,003 and Sh2, 096,299, 827 for development, noting no reason was provided for underutilisation.

The report indicates that of the 11 departments of the county, office of the governor and his deputy lead with a 100 per cent under-absorption of budgeted Sh13 million.

It is also indicated that the revenue collected from own source dropped by Sh46.8 million or 19 per cent from Sh244.74 million in 2016/17 to Sh197.89 million in the year under review.

Also highlighted is Sh16.9 million for materials procured for the construction of 60 ECDE centres.

“Bills of quantities and engineer’s estimate and procurement records were, however, not available for audit verification,” states the report.