The Kiambu County Finance department has denied incurring Sh2.5 billion in abnormal expenditures in the 2017/2018 financial year to fund the coordination of State House functions, South Sudan peace process and free primary education as reported by the Auditor General.
County Executive Committee (CEC) Member for Finance Francis Kigo Njenga Friday described the revelations as malicious, defamatory and misleading.
On Thursday when Governor Ferdinand Waititu appeared before the Senate County Public Accounts and Investments Committee (CPAIC) to respond to audit queries, it emerged that his administration had allocated millions of shillings to budget votes which do not fall under any devolved functions.
For example, the county had allocated Sh973 million for the coordination of State House functions and actually went ahead to spend Sh902 million in the year under review, Sh58 million was spent on South Sudan peace process and another Sh804 million was used for free primary education according to the audit report.
FUNNY FIGURES
But Mr Njenga said that the Kiambu County did not have a budget for the said functions, adding that he was baffled how the “funny figures” found their way into the Auditor-General’s report.
“The county has a budget duly approved by the county assembly of Kiambu and forwarded to the Controller of Budget and the Treasury. We have no vote head for State House, free primary education and South Sudan peace process or any other national government function,” Mr Kigo said in a statement.
The former Gatundu North MP said all county funds are paid by the Central Bank when approved by the Controller of Budget and the Treasury and not directly from the county, suggesting that there was no way such payments would have been made without the full knowledge of those offices.
ERRONEOUS REPORT
Mr Njenga said that the “erroneous report” does not reflect the financial operations of Kiambu and therefore “Treasury and the Auditor General should take responsibility” for the mess that has befallen Governor Ferdinand Waititu and his administration.
Already, the Senate CPAIC has ordered the office of the Auditor-General to conduct a special audit on the financial accounts of the Kiambu County government and report back within 45 days.
In calling for a special audit, members of the committee indicted that the office of Auditor General, accusing it of manipulating Kiambu financial records and called for another audit of the Kiambu Alcoholic Fund, popularly known as Kaa Sober, which was gobbling Sh2 million per day yet it had no approved budget.