- The Sports Fund has also been put on the spot over a Sh1.2 million irregular procurement of air tickets for some 29 Members of Parliament.
- Auditor general Nancy Gathungu raises concerns of unresolved audit queries for the year ending June 2020.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
An audit has unearthed irregularities in the management of the multibillion-shilling Sports Fund.
This puts the Ministry of Sports led by Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed in a spot.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu says the fund has failed to account for Sh8.9 billion disbursements to various sports federations.
The amount includes Sh6.94 billion for the development of sports and Sh1.8 billion for social development including universal health.
Also, Sh218 million for the promotion and development of arts and Sh66 million for monitoring and evaluation.
Gathungu says in the review of the Fund’s accounts as of June 2021 that there were no supporting documents to back the transfers to government agencies and sports organisations.
The Fund did not provide bills of quantities, governing body minutes, designs, approved plans and monitoring and evaluation reports for audit review.
“Consequently, the propriety of Sh8,986,829,006 transferred to the government implementing agencies and sports organisations could not be confirmed,” the auditor said.
The Sports Fund has also been put on the spot over a Sh1.2 million irregular procurement of air tickets for some 29 MPs.
Gathungu revealed that the money was paid to a travel agent for the procurement of return tickets to Mombasa, for a parliamentary committee retreat under the World Under20 Championship.
The auditor said although authority was sought from the CS to approve the expenditure for ministry staff, only four received tickets.
The names of the 29 MPs were not included in the approved request, the auditor said.
This raised queries why the W-U20 management procured the tickets yet the MP’s expenses are funded by the Parliamentary Service Commission.
“Further, there were no boarding passes, attendance register and back to office report to confirm that the retreat took place. Consequently, the propriety of Sh1,176,695 expenditure on air tickets could not be confirmed,” the auditor said.
Some Sh1.8 billion disbursed to the Ministry of Health as a Sports Fund Agency for universal health has also been queried.
Gathungu said no evidence was provided to confirm that the quarterly and annual progress reports from the social development kitty were submitted to the fund, to confirm the expenditure of Sh741 million for the year under review.
She also said no evidence was provided to confirm that Sh1.014 billion, which was not utilised during the year, was returned to the Sports, Arts, and Social Development Fund.
The audit further revealed that nine officers were yet to surrender imprests of Sh17 million expended during the World Rally Championship last year. Personnel numbers for four officers were not indicated.
“It was noted that the one officer had retired and was no longer in service. No reasons were provided for failure to account for the imprests or have them recovered from the officer’s salaries,” Gathungu said.
She said the recoverability of the same could not be confirmed.
The auditor has also flagged an excess transfer to sports organisations and agencies under the Sports ministry of Sh153 million.
Further to this, the Sports Fund was found to have exceeded the social development threshold of 60 per cent of the funds' apportionment contrary to the Legal Notice establishing the kitty.
“No explanation was provided for exceeding the apportionment rate,” Gathungu said, decrying that queries in the report for the year ended June 30, 2020, were yet to be acted upon.
In the review, the auditor queried payments to the FKF president Nick Mwendwa amounting to Sh11 million, without requisite documents or authorisation.
Also queried were payments to the tune of Sh57 million in respect of allowances and bonuses to Harambee Stars players and technical bench.
The expenditures for the team that travelled for AFCON camps in various countries were not supported by approved rates.
The Sports department also irregularly disbursed Sh529.9 million to organisations that are not registered by the commissioner of sports.
The auditor also revealed that Sh3.2 million and Sh8 million were irregularly disbursed to the Kenya National Sports Council and Gor-Mahia Football Club respectively.
The department also failed to explain why it did not remit employee pensions amounting to Sh7,207,329.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)