The Homa Bay government and assembly have been flouting the law leading to the possible loss of more than Sh300 million, the Auditor General has said.
In the 2014-15 Homa Bay county audit, the Auditor General cites numerous instances where the law was broken, concluding that the accuracy of spending in the financial statements could not be ascertained.
Auditor General Edward Ouko also cites numerous instances that county management failed to provide documents of spending even where payments had already been made.
Ouko's report shows that Sh26.4 million in outstanding imprest had been excluded from the statement of assets when the audit was done.
He also says there was an unexplained variance of Sh6.8 million for compensation of employees and an unsupported variance of Sh342.8 million for goods and services.
The Sh342 million includes Sh188.5 million on domestic travel, Sh149 million in "other operating costs", Sh94.9 million in rental of produce assets and Sh11.3 million in hospitality supplies and services.
The county is also accused of contracting companies that had not been pre-qualified, in clear violation of procurement laws.
The Auditor General further cites the contracting of a non-prequalified company to provide cleaning services at a cost of Sh973,000 per month.
The Homa Bay government could also not provide tender documents, contract agreement or policy documents for the payment of insurance cover services worth Sh8.57 million.
The report shows that Sh578,553 was used to purchase medical supplies for Homa Bay District hospital between March 16 and June 11, 2015 from non-prequalified pharmacists and that there is no proof of delivery.
Another Sh3.7 million was spent on dry ration food from two non-qualified companies but there was also no proof of delivery.
The Auditor General also says that during the 2014-15 finaicial year, Sh5.7 million was paid to two contractors for maintenance of Nyalkinyi-Imbo and Omoya-Pineapple Industry roads but physical verification revealed that nothing had been done.
There was also Sh14.5 million of unauthorised direct expenditure by various health facilities contrary to county government financial regulations.
Ouko also identifies at least two other projects worth more than Sh12 million in which contractors were paid but no work was done.
The county paid Sh4,927,290 for the construction of changing rooms and VIP toilets at Homa Bay stadium.
But audit verification on October 9, 2015 — six months after the supposed handover date of May 1, 2015 — revealed construction was still ongoing.
The county also paid more than Sh8 million for the Ranen Water Pan Project. But physical verification revealed the contractor was not on site.