•The agency spent the money without authorisation.
•MPs said it is a breach of law.
Image: COURTESY
Kerio Valley Development Authority is in a spot for unauthorised spending running into millions of shillings.
MPs want the state agency to explain the authorisation of Sh151 million it collected above its approved budget.
In the 2018-19 financial year, the state agency had an approved budget of Sh75 million but ended up collecting Sh226.5 million, monies which were spent at the source without authorisation.
According to the Public Finance Management Act, such monies should be surrendered to the exchequer and approval obtained from Parliament before they are put into use.
However, the audit report shows KVDA used the money without parliamentary approval and yesterday the agency did not provide approval documents.
The anomaly was flagged by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in her 2018-19 audit report.
Public Accounts Committee chairman Opiyo Wandayi put the authority’s managing director Sammy Noporos to task over the unauthorised spending.
“I can't see where the Principal Secretary approved the expenditure. The only way you would have used the money is after getting approval from the National Assembly,” Wandayi said.
He accused the authority of creating an artificial need to justify the spending of the money at source.
“Provide evidence that the National Assembly approved it in the subsequent supplementary budget,” he said.
The Ugunja MP accused the state cooperation of engaging in illegality after it emerged that the agency attempted to obtain authorization after the amount had been spent.
“The approval was happening after the money was collected. Ordinarily, you should have transmitted the money to the exchequer in totality. This is an illegal expenditure. People are playing games with the public money,” he said.
Sirisia MP John Waluke maintained that in the absence of evidence approving the expenditure, KVDA is in breach of the law.
Noporos admitted the anomaly but explained the authority wrote to the parent ministry seeking approval.
“Once we realised that there was more generation of income, we wrote to our parent ministry seeking approval,” he said.
He however did not avail the approval documents giving the agency a go-ahead to utilize the funds.
The watchdog committee directed the MD to furnish the committee with all the supporting documents by close of business Tuesday.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris