Governors in the Coast counties have raised concerns as to why audit queries settled months ago, have resurfaced from the Auditor General's office.
The audit reports were posted beginning last Friday, but the county managers said most of the issues have already been resolved.
Officials from the Auditor General's office, however, told the Star the reports are fresh and the governors' will have time for hearings in the Senate.
The audit reports for 2014-15, which were concluded and presented in September, indicate that Mombasa county had four parallel revenue accounts and a total of 22 bank accounts, including those for the former local authorities.
They had balances of Sh193.7million.
“In the circumstances, the validity, accuracy and completeness of the balances amounting to Sh299 million as at June 30 last year could not be ascertained,” Auditor General Edward Ouko report says.
The county is also accused of failing to bank into the county revenue fund Sh165 million collected between January and June last year.
The Ifmis figures indicated Sh7.7million, while financial statements availed for audit had indicated Sh4 million.
There were also unsurrendered imprest of Sh112.4 million.
County director of communication Richard Chacha said the accounts were closed, while others were nonoperational.
“Initially when we came in, we had not opened any accounts, but now they are not being used since signatories are also not part of the county,” he said.
He said the query issues were addressed, saying the Senate cleared Governor Hassan Joho's administration, when he appeared before it.
In Kilifi, the county paid Sh133.2 million through the recurrent account without using the Ifmis financial management platform, as required by law.
There were also inaccuracies in the statements of receipts and payments.
“A total of Sh23.4million was paid to personal accounts of three individuals and the management never gave any documents to explain the same,” the report said.
It indicates that 10 ambulances were bought for Sh88million, but three turned out to be Toyota Double Cabins and not ambulances.
The budget for Kilifi governor amounted to Sh821 million, but only Sh731 million was availed and no explanation was given.
Kilifi county secretary Owen Baya, however, said the story is malicious. He said only ODM governors are targeted and the queries raised in the report have been addressed.
“We received our report from the office almost two months ago, I am not aware what has been posted afresh,” Baya said.
In Lamu, the statements of receipts and payments disclose a balance of Sh560.9 million, in respect of acquisation of assets, which varied with the figure of Sh561.7 million disclosed in the statement of appropriation. This results in unexplained difference of Sh817,166.
The standing imprest account was Sh9.5 million, however, the bank reconciliation recorded Sh2 million as suspense and stales cheques of Sh1.4 million, which had not been reversed.
The report points out that Lamu county relies on the manual system for recording of revenue, but by the time the report was presented, there was no revenue ledger and the revenue cash book was not updated for several months.
In Kwale county, there were inaccuracies in the financial statements with the comparative figures for 2013-14 reflecting a total financial assets balance as Sh1.2billion, whereas the net financial position is reflected as Sh1.1billion. This left an unexplained variance of Sh64 million.
The county opened an emergency account of Sh42 million, which was not approved by the assembly.
A further Sh14.6 million was spent to hire taxis for the office, but there was no evidence for terms of services and agreed charges.
County secretary Martin Mwaro said the issues were resolved a long time ago.
“I wonder why the matter is coming up again,” he said.
In Taita Taveta, proceeds from foreign borrowing of Sh12.4 million were not provided for audit verification.
Ouko said statement of assets indicated there was an outstanding imprest of Sh6.2 million, which was overdue as at end of the financial year.
There were also unsupported domestic travel allowances of Sh126 million, of which Sh14.1million was not supported with work tickets, bus tickets, meetings, attendance registers, minutes of meetings attended and reports of the meetings.
County secretary Peter Jumwa promised to consult colleagues and get back to the reporter.