Baringo denies 192 illegal bank accounts, says all empty

Baringo county has denied operating 192 illegal bank accounts as reported by the media covering the Auditor General's report for 2018-19.

The bank accounts are real, but the county had no funds and they were empty by the time of the audit, the administration said on Wednesday.

The county's response to the report is contained in an official letter from communications director Sylus Kiptui and released to the media on Wednesday.

“Those bank accounts had exhausted their allocations and were dormant with nil balances by the time of audit and so banks do not produce statements for such accounts without ledger fees,” the document read.

The letter rejected media reports, attributed to the office of the Auditor General, that the county operates illegal bank accounts.

“The information shared to the public is twisted and misleading and does not capture the facts as highlighted by the Auditor General,” Kiptui said.

He wrote that the 192 accounts were opened and operated by health centres and dispensaries prior to devolution.

“Each of the over 200 health facilities operate these accounts to pay for day-to-day operations like cleaning, stationery and paying casuals,” he said.

Kitpui said the donor community often supports the health sector through direct funding of the facilities and having a bank account is one condition to channel funds for purposes of audit.

He said during the audited financial year, the health facilities received Sh16m from the Danish International Development Agency and Sh13 million user fees from the national government, totalling Sh29million.

“In conclusion and from the above explanations it is quite clear that no monies were lost in the financial year 2018-2019, be informed duly," the letter concluded.

However, Baringo is among the counties questioned by the Auditor General about alleged irregular operation of bank accounts.

During the year under review, the county had a total budget of Sh8.1 billion but used Sh5.5 billion, resulting in under absorption of Sh2.5 billion — which was 32 per cent of the budget.

Auditor General Nancy Gathungu criticised Governor Stanley Kiptis' administration for running the commercial accounts, some used to disburse funds to hospitals.

The report said the numerous accounts might have led to the misuse of Sh2.1 billion in 2018-19.

The auditor said the closing balances in the accounts were not incorporated into the financial statements by the county.

When the auditors sought to confirm the balances in the accounts, the banks did not respond to their letters.

“In the absence of sufficient and reliable information, the accuracy of the cash and the cash equivalents balance totaling Sh2.1 billion reflected in the statements of assets and liabilities as at June 30, 2019, was not confirmed," the auditor said.

She said aggregate bank balances included Sh128.3 million held in 44 bank accounts operated contrary to regulations of the Public Finance Management Act.

Gathungu said more than Sh628.5 million was transferred to the assembly, exceeding the legal threshold of seven per cent of county revenue. The maximum transferable amount to the assembly was Sh536 million.

(Edited by V. Graham)