Wajir Governor blames EACC for financial mess in county

Wajir Governor Mohammed Abdi (L) accompanied by his County Secretary Abdullahi Hassan when they appeared before the Senate County Public Accounts and Investment Committee over audit queries at Parliament. [Boniface Okendo/Standard]

The raiding of the Wajir County offices and confiscation of vital documents by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) led to the damning report by the Auditor General Edward Ouko.

Wajir Governor Abdi Mohamud blamed EACC for the damning audit report on the county financial operations when he appeared before a Senate watchdog committee.

The county boss tore into the anti-graft agency, before the Senate Public Accounts and Investments Committee, accusing it of carting away crucial documents that were necessary for the preparation of the financial statements to be presented to the auditors last year.

“EACC officers came to raid Wajir. They took all the documents and they did not leave us with any copies. We did not have any document to present for audit,” said Mohamud in response to 2017/18 audit queries raised by Auditor General Edward Ouko.

The county chief could also blame the challenges of retrieving documents from the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) for the mess in his financial books.

The governor explained that there were technical hitches with the automated system at the time, which made it impossible to upload transactions.

“Account receivable and cash module were not active (on IFMIS) hence the delay in the financial statements,” he said.

The auditor, in his report for the year ended June 2018, censured the County Executive for late submission and inaccuracies in its financial submissions.

The county submitted the statements and the supporting documents three months late.