- A senate watchdog committee has ordered the auditor general to conduct a special audit on billions spent by the now-defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services
- This even as Governor Johnson Sakaja lifted the lid on the system and financial mess that he inherited from City Hall and the defunct entity.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
A Senate watchdog committee has ordered Auditor General Nancy Gathungu to conduct a special audit on billions spent by the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services.
This even as Governor Johnson Sakaja lifted the lid on the system and financial mess that he inherited from City Hall and the now-defunct entity.
Appearing before the Pubic Accounts Committee chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’, Sakaja pushed for the audit to ascertain if public funds were prudently used.
“We have written to the office of the auditor general, last year, asking them to conduct an audit on NMS,” the county chief said.
Kajwang' ordered the auditor to thoroughly audit own source revenue collected by City Hall, financial operations at NMS and debt accumulated by the entity.
“Forensic audit is done with a view to prosecution. But here we need to get another name where performance or value for money audit,” Kajwang' said.
The governor disclosed that he was taken aback by the huge pending bills incurred by the NMS, which existed for about two years.
According to Sakaja, in addition to receiving in excess of Sh27 billion from City Hall, NMS accumulated pending bills amounting to Sh16 billion.
“[Former President Mwai Kibaki] built Thika superhighway with Sh30 billion and we are seeing it there. What is this [that NMS] did with Sh43 billion?” the governor posed.
Sakaja claimed the NMS finances were being managed by former State House comptroller Kinuthia Mbugua, who served as the entity’s chief accounting officer.
He said City Hall legal pending bills amount to Sh21 billion.
“If we pay this amount, then there is nothing else we will do. We will not do roads or collect garbage,” Sakaja said.
Since coming to City Hall, the governor said he has not had access to some crucial documents, especially those that were under the NMS custody.
The governor, who at one point ran into trouble with the panel for provision of incomplete records to respond to the queries, said some of the documents have never been availed to him.
“Let me be very honest with this committee that it would be impossible for me to avail some of the documents sought to answer audit queries since they are in the possession of the State House Comptroller, who was the accounting officer of the Nairobi Metropolitan Services,” Sakaja said.
The governor revealed the handing over of assets and liabilities from NMS to his administration was still under discussion and that they were trying everything possible to ensure they are on the right track.
Sakaja said President William Ruto has been of great help in enabling the county administration get on the right footing and that the office of the President was better placed to give details on the financial management of the city under the NMS.
“As you are all aware there was a lot of confusion in the past Nairobi County government, which ended up with Nairobi Metropolitan Services assuming some roles. For the last six months that I have been in power, I have strived to put the county on the path to efficient service delivery,” Sakaja said.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna wondered why Sakaja had not declared from the onset that it was not possible to get financial documents sought by the auditor general and the committee, since without them, nothing much will be done as far as the answering of queries was concerned.
“We would like to tell Sakaja that he should have informed the Senate Public Accounts Committee of the challenges he was facing so that we could take necessary action. We could have summoned the former director general of Nairobi Metropolitan Services,” Sifuna said.
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah said he sympathised with the predicament that Sakaja had found himself in and that the committee had powers to summon NMS Director General Mohammed Badi if need be so that he could shed light over audit queries raised for the last three years.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said it was clear there was no proper handing over of assets and liabilities from the NMS to the Sakaja administration, and that the past regime needed to be put to task over the spending of over Sh43 billion allocated to NMS.
Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka said the committee would hold deliberations on whether to summon Badi so that he could explain the expenditure of funds allocated to the county, while he oversaw essential county services.