Bomet overspent on recurrent operations in 2017-18 fiscal year, thus starving the county of development programmes.
Auditor General Edward Ouko says the county had a Sh6.2 billion budget for operations but spent Sh4.1 million, resulting in an under-expenditure of Sh1.2 billion.
An analysis of the budget shows that the county used Sh874 million (18 per cent) of the budget on development. "This was contrary to provisions in the Public Finance Management Act which require that not less than 30 per cent of the budget be used on development activities,” Ouko says.
A budget allocation of Sh1.5 billion for the acquisition of assets was underspent by Sh930.4 million.
The Auditor General said the general trend of budget under-expenditure indicates that residents did not receive effective and efficient service delivery in the year under review.
Receipts and payments for that year totalled Sh939 million and Sh684 million on the acquisition of assets.
Included in the payments was Sh233 million which was not supported by evidence such as contracts and completion certificates.
The county government paid Sh162.4 million outside the Integrated Financial Management Information System.
Ouko could not confirm the use of Sh91 million on printing advertising and information, and another Sh26.2 million on foreign and subsistence travel. He also could not confirm the use of Sh42 million on maintenance, Sh73.4 million on training and another Sh12 million on the purchase of certified seeds.
The county had pending bills of Sh296.2 million out of which Sh267 million could not be confirmed because of lack of authentic and verifiable documents.
“As a result, the validity and accuracy of the pending bills could not be confirmed.”
The county collected internal revenue amounting to Sh181.6 million compared to Sh234 million the previous financial year. Ouko blames the county for being ineffective in revenue collection.
Also queried is expenditure for the construction of the governor’s lounge and office at Sh52 million. The county paid an extra Sh8.8 million for variations in the contract but there were no minutes on how the variations were initiated.
Another Sh32.3 million was spent to pay debts for four cooperative societies in the region. The cooperatives owed the money to the Agricultural Finance Corporation and the FMD East Africa.
“It is unclear how the county government became liable to pay debts owed by the cooperative societies to AFC and FMD East Africa,” Ouko says.
The county also paid Sh33 million to the Kenya Red Cross. The auditor says a list of activities which the Red Cross was to undertake was not provided for audit.
