• Governor said county has been facing challenges obtaining documents since the transactions were done during the former administration.
• They include unsupported pending bills amounting to Sh680.7 million and failure to recover imprest totaling Sh10 million.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
A Senate oversight committee on Tuesday put Taita Taveta Governor Granton Samboja on the spot over irregular procurement and failure to submit documents to support expenditures amounting to millions of shillings.
The Senate County Public Accounts and Investment committee questioned why the county executive failed to submit the relevant documents to auditors in 2016-17.
According to the 2016-17 audit report on the financial expenditures of the Taita Taveta executive, the county failed to submit to the auditor general supporting documents for expenditure amounting to more than Sh700 million.
They include unsupported pending bills amounting to Sh680.7 million, Sh3.9 million tender irregular tender for installation of a switchboard at Voi Referral Hospital and failure to recover imprest totalling Sh10 million.
“No support documents for the pending bills were availed for audit verification. Consequently, the validity, accuracy and authenticity of the pending bills amounting to Sh680.7 million as at June 30, 2017, could not be ascertained,” Ouko’s report reads.
Samboja admitted the auditor’s finding but explained that his administration has been facing challenges obtaining documents since the transactions were done during the former administration.
“These are some of the challenges that we found when we took over. These were because of internal controls within the county government. This is why some of these things happened,” the governor said.
He, however, explained that his administration has put in place measures towards ensuring timely submission of the documents.
But the senators pressed the governor, demanding to know whether he and his officers knew the consequences of late or failure to submit documents to auditors.
“You are under obligation to provide information to auditors when they knock at your door. What you are telling us is that the documents are somewhere but we don’t know where,” committee chairman Sam Ongeri (Kisii) said.
Taita Taveta 's Johanness Mwaruma said, “Section 196 of the PFM is clear on the sanctions for failure to provide documents. Maybe the governor may not be aware of the implications of the law.”
Migori’s Ochillo Ayacko cited sections of the Public Audit Act and Public Finance Management Act that compel the county to submit financial statements to audit within three months after the end of the financial year.
The governor pleaded for the committee’s lenience, promising to submit the documents in seven days.
According to the audit report, there was no document for pending bills for accounts payable Sh598 million and for staff balances payable Sh82.4 million.
“No support documents for the pending bills were availed for audit verification. Consequently, the validity, accuracy and authenticity of the pending bills amounting to Sh680 million as at June 30, 2017, could not be ascertained,” the report reads.
Further, Sh10.6 million worth of imprests were outstanding for more than six months contrary to section the Public Finance Management (County Government) Regulations 2015.
In addition, the outstanding imprests included Sh8.7 million issued to the staff of the County Executive, contrary to the PFM.
“Consequently, the propriety, accuracy and validity of outstanding imprests could not be ascertained."
In his response, Samboja told the Ongeri-led committee that the outstanding imprest during the period under review has since been surrendered and cleared in the system.
He explained that most of the imprests outstanding for more than six months were meant to be surrendered at the end of the financial year.
“Despite some having been surrendered on time, there were system challenges that delayed their clearance in the IFMIS system on time. All the imprests that were outstanding have been surrendered,” Samboja said.
He further told the committee that systems and mechanisms have been put in place to ensure staff do not take additional imprests before the surrender of the previously issued advances.
Edited by R.Wamochie