•The debts were still outstanding as of April 30, 2021 contrary to regulation 41(2) of the Public Finance Management Regulations, 2015.
•The audit confirmed transactions amounting to Sh17 million were done with budgetary provisions and procurement plans
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
The Nairobi County Assembly is in a spot over procurement irregularities with pending bills amounting to Sh14.4 million without documents.
A special audit by the office of the Auditor General revealed that out of the Sh31 million pending bills accumulated by the county assembly in the financial years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, only Sh16.6 million was eligible.
Instead of clearing the eligible debt, the audit noted that the county assembly had paid eligible pending bills amounting to Sh8.2 million, leaving an outstanding balance of Sh8.3 million as at April 30, 2021.
This is despite the National Treasury having released Sh2.43 billion in the two financial years under review.
According to Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, the city county assembly provided pending bills transactions valued at Sh26.2 million with another Sh4.9 million in supplier circularisation – outstanding supplier credits and historical overpayments.
However, the assembly failed to disclose Sh7.5 million in the financial statements.
Further, only supporting documents for transactions amounting to Sh18 million were provided for the special audit review.
The audit confirmed transactions amounting to Sh17 million were done with budgetary provisions and procurement plans.
A balance of Sh12.7 million was not supported with any form of documentation from either the county assembly or the suppliers.
“The special audit could not confirm the completeness, presentation and disclosure of the total pending bills amounting to Sh26 million for the County Assembly of Nairobi as at June 30, 2020, and subsequent settlement including the unsettled balance as at April 30, 2021,” the audit report in part.
The county assembly was also faulted for failing to clear pending bills amounting to Sh11 million which should have been paid as first charge.
The debts were still outstanding as of April 30, 2021 contrary to regulation 41(2) of the Public Finance Management Regulations, 2015.
The affected suppliers included Sh6.3 million owed to various law firms for legal services, Deloitte Consultancy Limited’s Sh1.26 million, Nation Media Group’s bill of about Sh1 million and advocate Muthomi Karanja’s Sh1.8 million for litigation services.
Going further , the audit said the debt owed to various suppliers was a decrease of Sh5.6 million or 15 percent from a reported balance of Sh36.6 million as at June 30, 2018.
However, the county assembly was faulted for several institutional irregularities including non-payment of approved pending bills, poor record keeping.
The assembly was also fingered for starting a new project without clearing the old ones or without appropriations and budget provisions, weak budgeting system where pending bills are not included in subsequent year’s budget.
(Edited by Francis Wadegu)