Baringo County Government on the spot over unaccounted for millions

Governor Benjamin Cheboi (centre) during his state of the county address in the recent past. His government is on the spot for millions of shillings allegedly spent without proper paperwork. [PHOTO: HENRY KWENYA/STANDARD]

Baringo county government cannot account for millions of shillings of public money under its watch, Auditor General Edward Ouko says in a report.

The county is also on the spot for unsupported imprests, irregularities in procurement, misallocation of expenditure, irregular lease of offices, unsupported allowances and irregular payment of honoraria and meal Allowances.

In the report released by the Auditor General’s office for 2013-2014 financial year, by the time of auditing, the review of imprest records of the county treasury for Sh20,720,273 which should have been surrendered had not been cleared.

“The imprests should have been surrendered on or before June 30, 2014 but were still outstanding as at the time of this audit. In addition, some officers were holding multiple imprests contrary to Section 5.6.4 of Government financial regulations and procedures governing issuance of imprest. No reason was provided for holding some imprests since April 2013 and not complying with the regulation,” reads the report.

Per diems

The report also shows that over Sh750,000 was paid to the county’s chief of staff on April 9, 2014 for the payments of per diems and registration fees for MCAs and staff attending the devolution conference in Kwale but were not supported by motor vehicle work ticket and air tickets and boarding passes showing they, indeed, travelled.

“A review of payment records showed that an amount of Sh761,600 was paid to the chief of staff on April 9, 2014 being surrender of imprest issued to him to meet the per diems and registration fees for MCAs and staff who attended Devolution Conference in Kwale. Included in the amount is Sh285,600 registration fee for MCAs.

However, the payment was not supported by motor vehicle work ticket/air tickets and boarding passes to support the travel. In addition, there was no documentation to support payment of registration fee of Sh285,600. Consequently the propriety of the expenditure of Sh761,600 cannot be confirmed,” reads part of the report.

The report also indicates that records provided for audit review showed that the county’s department of health entered into contract with various contractors for construction and renovation of health facilities through requests for quotations.

“The department entered into seven contracts with sums totaling over Sh48 million which were awarded to the contractors through request for quotations method although the contract sums for each exceeded the Sh4,000,000 threshold for Class A procuring entities,” says the report.

It says the contract sums included provisional amounts and project management expenses totaling Sh12.3m in respect of seven projects but there was no documentary evidence to show how the sub-contractors for the works were selected and awarded.

It further says the purpose of the project management expenses included in the provisional costs has not been explained or accounted for and some of the projects, like the construction of a theatre at Kabartonjo district hospital, had stalled and the contractor was not on site.

“The construction of a mortuary at Kabarnet District Hospital which commenced on October 28, 2013 and ought to have been completed by June 28, 2014, was still not complete. Partitioning and floor tiling were yet to be done. The rest of the work that had been completed had not been handed over. In addition, the minutes of the Contract Tender Opening Committee and Tender Committee awarding the contract were not provided for audit review,” reads the report.

Sitting allowances

The audit review of expenditure shows that the health department made payments to Kemsa, Chemolingot district hospital, Eldama Ravine hospital, Kabarnet district hospital, Kabartonjo district hospital, Marigat district hospital and M/S Unlock Africa Kenya of Sh30,490,686 without supporting LPOs, payment vouchers, invoices and goods receipt notes.

The auditor general has also cited the county assembly for irregularly paid sitting allowances.

The report said the 48 MCAs attending Kimalel goat auction held on December 20, 2013  received Sh207, 300 contrary to regulation stipulated by Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

“A review of the county assembly records indicated that the members were paid a total of Sh207,300 on 20 December, 2013 as sitting allowances for attending Kimalel goat auction contrary to regulations stipulated in SRC Circular Ref. No.RC/TS/CGOVT/3/16 of 27 November, 2013 which states that sitting allowance are paid to MCAs for Plenary and Committee sittings only,” reads the report.

The report further flagged payment of Sh501, 800 sitting allowances to MCAs in excess of the maximum four sittings per week in the plenary provided by SRC.

Mr Ouko has recommended that the county government recovers irregularly paid allowances from MCAs.

“The management should ensure that sitting allowances are paid as per Government financial regulations and as stipulated in the SRC circular(s).

“In addition, any irregularly paid sitting allowances and over payments should be recovered from the concerned members,” Ouko recommends.