The Auditor-General has raised a red flag on bizarre spending by the Kiambu County government including paying Sh19.5 million for airtime and Sh1.69 million for 11 phones and lunch for Jamhuri Day attendees that attracted an Sh1.1 million tab.
The James Nyoro administration has also been asked to explain under what circumstance Sh18.3 million, was paid as imprests for various events in the county even as it was established that some of those listed did not attend.
The audit for the 2019/2021 Financial Year says that a list had the names, cell phone numbers, and signatures of the participants.
“However, a random selection of the cell phone numbers revealed that the recipients of the calls confirmed non-attendance of the events,” said the report, noting that the risk was “loss of funds through embezzlement”.
The confidential report dated December 30, 2020, authored by W.K. Kamula on behalf of Nancy Gathungu cited another case on Jamhuri Day celebrations when Sh1.152 million was allegedly advanced to a county official to buy lunch for guests at a cost of Sh1,500 stipend each.
“However, through a random call of the cellphone numbers in the list, the recipients of the calls denied ever attending the Jamhuri day celebration.
Further, the recipients of the calls also denied ever receiving payments from the county,” the report indicated.
Another Sh952,000 was advanced during the Mashujaa Day celebrations but a random contact to the listed beneficiaries, established that none of them attended the event.
The report has also flagged the county for paying irregular Sh62 million to ward Reps and county assembly staff to finance workshops and retreats in Mombasa and Naivasha.
The Auditor-General, in a damming preliminary report dubbed “Management letter” pointed out that Salaries and Remuneration Commission had capped the cost of phones at Sh80,000.
The phones bought include two Iphone XS (max) at Sh198,440, an Iphone X for Sh198,000 and Ipad (Sh170,689), two Samsung S10 (Sh146,160 each), a Samsung Galaxy note 8 and a Ipad pro( Sh145,000 each), and a Samsung Galaxy S4 at a cost of Sh84,100.
The report was sent to the County Executive Committee Member of Finance Mburu Kang’ethe, who sources told the People Daily, yesterday fired a memo asking the concerned officials to respond to queries.
Kang’ethe did not respond to our calls and messages on the matter.
However, the Reactor Review has established that he had written a memo to accounting officers to explain the exaggerated expenditures on phones and irregular payment of imprests.
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