Members of the County Assembly of Nakuru diverted Sh370 million meant for development to buy cars and houses, a report by the Office of the Controller of Budget has revealed.
The latest report on the county government budget implementation for the third quarter of the 2014-2015 financial year, has put Governor Kinuthia Mbugua’s administration on the spot for failure to put in place an internal audit committee.
“The county should constitute an internal audit committee to enhance oversight and management controls in financial management,” the Controller of Budget, Agnes Odhiambo said in her recommendations. The revelations came just weeks after the High Court in Nakuru halted the mortgage scheme by the county assembly where each of the 74 ward reps was to get a Sh2 million car loan and a Sh3million mortgage from the taxpayers’ money.
The case filed by nominated MCA Margaret Wanjiku Kiiru and still pending in court claims the process was flawed and that there lay a risk of misusing public funds since no committee had been appointed to manage the funds. But the report released last week by the Controller of Budget, noted that there were instances in the county budget where funds released to one department were diverted to other sections, signalling weak budgetary control.
An analysis of the county expenditure in the first nine months of the year showed that a total of Sh4.29 billion (84.2 per cent) was spent on recurrent activities while Sh803.19 million (15.8 per cent) was spent on development activities.
The Office of the Controller of Budget criticised the county government for ineffective administration and accounting of funds. The county spent Sh370million on construction and rehabilitation of roads, street lightning and drainage works, Sh117 Million on construction of health centres and dispensaries, Sh113 million on construction of Early Childhood Development classrooms, Sh67 million on construction and provision of community water projects.
Another Sh60 million was spend on construction of market sheds and market complexes, Sh38.71 million on cattle dips and provision of pyrethrum seeds and fertilisers and Sh20 million on local revenue automation. Ms Odhiambo recommended to the county to institute appropriated measures to improve absorption of development funds.
The report further recommended that the county executive member for finance should designate an officer to administer each established county public fund in line with Section 116 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012.