•Homabay Governor Cyprian Awiti was on Thursday put on the spot over Sh742 million pending bills in his administration.
•He appeared before a Senate committee chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang to respond to 2017-18 audit queries raised by auditor general.
Image: EZEKIEL AMINGA
Homa Bay Governor Cyprian Awiti was on Thursday put under pressure to explain why Sh742 million pending bills have not been cleared.
The governor was at pains to explain to the Senate County Public Accountant and Investment Committee how his administration accumulated the huge bills over a period of seven years.
He appeared before the committee chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang to respond to 2017-18 audit queries raised by auditor general.
The county chief, who had failed to appear in occasions previously over ill health, was grilled for more than five hours and defended his administration.
In his 2017-18 report, Auditor General revealed that financial statements prepared by the county officers reflected pending bills totaling Sh742 million as at June 30, 2018.
Further, the supporting documents for the pending bills were not provided for audit. Examination of pending bills records from 12 sectors revealed that the total pending bills was Sh781 resulting in understatement of the bills Sh38 million.
However, according to a special audit by the auditor in May, out of the Sh1.6 billion disclosed by the county as pending bills, only Sh742 million was legible. The remaining Sh916 million claim was found to be ineligible.
“In view of the omission, the accuracy and validity of pending bills balance of Sh742 million as June 30th cannot be confirmed as correct,” the report reads in part.
He governor put up a strong defence saying that his administration had indeed confirmed that Sh742 million was legible and due for payment
He explained the Sh1.6 billion his disclosed to auditors included claims ‘unverified’ suppliers and contractors.
Awiti insisted that the difference of Sh38 million captured in the auditor’s report were payment already made in the department of finance but not adjusted in the respective departments therefore resulting to over statement of the pending bills.
He maintained that the report did not reflect the real position at the county government, adding that some of the issues listed as pending were donor funds that had been carried forward to the next financial year.
“Mr. Chairman, the Sh742 million is not all our money, it is donor funds, we must take that into account some of the funds belong to World Bank,” he stated.
But Kajwang’ stated that the county had indicated it had Sh742 million pending bills only for the figure to balloon to Sh1.6 billion when a special audit was carried out for the counties.
The committee also questioned the governor over Sh9.7 million unsupported payment of commission agents and dwindling local revenue collection by his administration.
The county revenues have reduced to Sh101 million from Sh232 million four years ago. The governor cited tough economic times in the county for the dwindling revenues.
He also explained that the revenues dropped in 2017-18 financial year because of the August 8, 2017 General Election that disrupted the collections.
“Mr. Chairman, you know, Homa Bay is a rural county and therefore it cannot collect much considering the situation of the economy. We only rely on fish which of late have been migrating to Uganda,” he said.