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| Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o |
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o has apologised to Governor Kawira Mwangaza over an erroneous report on Meru county executive’s expenditure on foreign travel.
Nyakang’o said the error has since been rectified and a new report with accurate figures uploaded on their website.
In a letter to the governor dated July 5, 2024, Nyakang’o said the error had occurred on page 338 of the County Budget Implementation Review Report (CBIRR) for the first nine months of the 2024/2025.
In the report, the CB said it was erroneously reported that Meru county executive spent Sh903.20 million on foreign travel over the period under review.
Nyakang’o said the expenditure was incorrectly captured as the correct amount was Sh903,200 and the “word million was erroneous”.
“This was an inadvertent error and we apologise for the omission and misrepresentation,” she said.
Nyakang’o said the faulty report has since been pulled down from the CoB website and replaced it with the correct version.
“We commit to take corrective action on the above erroneous reporting in line with our revision policy,” she stated.
Nyakang’o further added that corrective action will be contained in the Annual County Budget Implementation Review Report for Financial Year 2023/2024 which will be published in August, 2024.
The CBIRR report highlights the status of budget implementation by the 47 county governments for the period between July 2023 and March 2024.
Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza had denied reports of excessive personal spending on foreign trips as highlighted in the initial report.
“I’m shocked and dismayed by the fact that a government agency, Controller of Budget, can give a false report at a time when our country Kenya is in need of factual information to avoid civil unrest,” she said.
In a Facebook post, Mwangaza said the county executive spent only Sh910,000 adding that the CoB made an error in calculating the amount spent by her administration.
“The report, in the first sentence accurately indicates that Meru county spent Sh43.75 million on foreign travel. Out of this, the County Assembly spent Sh42.84 million,” Mwangaza said.
“Therefore the difference should be only Sh910,000 less than Sh1 million and not Sh903 million and it is a fact that Meru executive spent Sh910,000,” she said.
Additionally, Mwangaza noted that since 2022, she has never spent any public money to facilitate a foreign trip.