• Auditor says the devolved unit spent billions of shillings without authorisation.
• The Department of Public Service Administration overshot expenditure by a colossal Sh2.1 billion.
Auditor General Edward Ouko has unearthed Sh2.6 billion unauthorised expenditures in Kajiado in the financial year ending June 30, 2017.
County departments exceeded approved budgets, according to Ouko. The department of Public Service Administration and Citizen Participation had been allocated Sh419.2 million but it ended up spending Sh2.5 billion, an unauthorised expenditure of Sh2.1 billion.
Ouko says the devolved unit's financial statements reflect payments of Sh1.1 billion on goods and services out of which Sh247 million was for domestic travel. The figure differs from Sh87.9 million reflected in the IFMIS system. This is an unexplained difference of Sh159 million.
The county, then headed by David Nkedianye as governor, did not provide supporting documents for Sh766.8 million pending bills. It had a financial shortage in own revenue collections of Sh1 billion, which Ouko says affected the implementation of services and projects.
The financial statements of the county indicated that the county had non-current assets worth Sh2.1 billion. The figure does not include assets worth Sh91.6 million acquired in the four-month period ending June 30, 2013.
Out of Sh2.1 billion allocated for staff salaries, the county used Sh24 million on casual workers but there was no evidence of how they were hired and paid.
The Auditor General says the county awarded Sh20 million contract for the construction of a library but it ended up paying Sh58.4 million for the project, a variance of Sh38.4 million.
The county illegally used Sh15 million on a dining hall at Olekejuado High School through restricted tendering yet the construction of schools is not a devolved function, according to the audit report. The contract for the project was awarded at Sh38 million but the contract documents had no dates.
The auditor also queries the expenditures on the Ngong Sports Complex that was to cost Sh198.4 million. The project had stalled at the time of the audit with more than Sh37 million already spent. Ouko did not get an explanation of why Sh3 million was paid to an architect for consultancy services yet no work had been done during the year under review.
A Sh53.7 million contract for the construction of a maternity wing at Kajiado County Referral Hospital was varied unprocedurally with an extra cost of Sh13.1 million.
Ouko says most of the projects in the county were done without public participation.
Edited by F. Mwaniki