In her latest audit on counties, Gathungu said a summary of the fixed assets register in West Pokot reflected a balance of Sh2.3 billion.
She however said the county financial statement had a starting balance of assets valued at Sh1.1 billion whereas the audited closing balance for the year 2017/18 was Sh5.2 billion.
This resulted in an unexplained difference of about Sh4 billion.
Gathungu says the records did not also include values of fixed assets inherited from the defunct local authorities which were handed over to the county government.
“The balances were also not supported by a fixed assets register which is contrary to the public finance management regulations which require accounting officers to maintain registers of all assets under their control,” Gathungu said.
At the same time, she has faulted the county headed by Governor John Lonyangapuo for failing to utilize about Sh900 million which had been allocated for development projects and recurrent activities in the 2018/19 financial period.
Gathungu says the county had a budget of Sh6.3 billion but utilized Sh5.5 billion resulting in an under absorption of about Sh891 million or 14 per cent of the budget.
She says the county had budgeted to use Sh1.5 billion on development projects but ended up using Sh1.1 billion.
The county did not utilize Sh360 million which had been earmarked for projects in the region.
On recurrent expenditure, the county almost exhausted its budget of Sh4.1 billion and could not utilize Sh65 million out of the amount.
She says the county did not give reasons for the under-expenditure.
“The under-absorption of the approved budget is an indication that activities and projects in the annual work plan were not implemented and this had negative effects on service delivery for West Pokot residents,” Gathungu said.
She said that the county used about Sh2.1 billion on the compensation of its employees but did not give details on casual workers who were paid more than Sh104 million.
“The management did not provide information on the casual employees such as date of hire, period served, departments where they were deployed, duties performed and qualifications among others,” Gathungu said.
More than Sh9 million was deducted from the casual worker’s remittances for NSSF, NHIF and PAYE but no evidence was provided to confirm that the money was forwarded to the respective institutions.
In the year under review, the county executive also transferred Sh559 million to the county assembly in the area but records at the assembly indicated that more than Sh108 million was included in the transferred amounts.
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