More than Sh1.2 billion allocated to the Samburu county in 2017-18 was not properly accounted for, according to Auditor General Edward Ouko.
The county executive did not provide documents to support Sh157.6 million expenditure, Ouko says, noting that some items were charged to wrong accounts.
He says the county incurred unsupported expenditure of Sh36.9 million but there were no payment vouchers and receipts.
The Auditor General questions Sh53.4 million expenditure on hospitality, out of which Sh2.6 million was paid to the Council of Governors as rent for the liaison office. The county did not provide a lease agreement or other documents to confirm the rent payments.
The county is headed by Governor Moses Lenolkulol, who was last Tuesday charged with abuse of office and conflict of interest leading to the loss of Sh84.4 million public funds.
The governor denied the charges and was freed on Sh150 million bail. He appealed the bail terms and walked to freedom after judge Mumbi Ngugi reduced it to Sh10 million or Sh30 million bond.
Ouko also questions Sh39.9 million paid to Kemsa for the supply of medicine.
“This was not supported by delivery notes and acceptance reports. The validity of the expenditure could not be confirmed," the Auditor General says.
Ouko raises issues with the outstanding and uncollected imprests of more than Sh64.3 million.
"The management did not give reasons why the imprests, which should have been surrendered or accounted for on or before June 30, 2018, remained outstanding at the close of the financial year."
The county also had Sh720 million pending bills without supporting documents for audit. He said the county entered into financial commitments for which funds were not available.
Ouko says the county had a local revenue budget Sh301.2 million but ended up collecting Sh224.8 million, an under collection of Sh76.3 million.
In the financial year under the review, the county had a final budget of Sh4.2 billion - Sh2.8 billion for recurrent and Sh1.3 billion for development. An under-expenditure of Sh105.1 million was recorded.
The auditor says the county failed to comply with the Public Finance Management Act because it used Sh733.1 million or 18 per cent of its budget on development and Sh3.3 million or more than 82 per cent of its budget on recurrent items.
The law requires that a minimum of 30 per cent of the budget be allocated to development.
Ouko says the county had an over-expenditure of Sh552.1 million on recurrent votes, implying that development expenditure was re-allocated for recurrent use yet there was no approval of a supplementary budget.
“As a result, the management did not comply with the approved budget provisions as appropriated by the county assembly."
Ouko also questions the construction of the county office executive block whose tender was awarded to M/S Ole Noor General Hardware Limited at a contract sum of Sh285.4 million on April 23, 2014, for unspecified contract period.
Payment of Sh256 million had been made by October 2018 but by the time of the audit, the project had stalled and the contractor had abandoned the site.
The county did explain why the project had not been completed five years since it started.
Ouko also questions the purchase of vehicles worth Sh37.4 million.
