Senators are now going after top accountants responsible for the preparation and keeping of financial records in the county governments.
The development comes after the Senate watchdog committees established poor record-keeping and massive rot in the financial books in many devolved units.
The Senate County Public Accounts, and the County Public Investment and Special Funds Committee said professional accountants responsible for the problems should be severely punished.
The dreaded panels chaired by Senators Moses Kajwang’ (Homa Bay) and Godfrey Osotsi (Vihiga) have resolved to write to the Institute of Certified Public Accountants (ICPAC).
The Kajwang and Osotsi-led committees want the accountants who prepare and sign incomplete, haphazard and ‘rotten’ financial statements investigated and punished for professional misconduct.
ICPAC is a body of professionals practising in the discipline of accounting, auditing, taxation and business regulatory laws, finance and management.
The institute promotes standards of professional competence and practice amongst its members.
“We have resolved that going forward, we are not going to tolerate a situation where professional accountants, with ICPAC numbers, prepare and sign statements that do not make sense,” Kajwang said.
The firebrand Homa Bay Senator, whose committee has been questioning governors and their top finance officers over spending of public cash, said nearly all counties are affected.
“We have witnessed this problem across, but there are some notorious counties. Apart from the county CEOs, who are the governors taking overall responsibility, we are now going after the accountants who are the technical people responsible for the preparation of these documents,” he said.
Besides the county executive, the problem is also rampant in county assemblies, water bodies and other funds run by the devolved units.
Osotsi said the cases of incomplete financial records due to missing vouchers, LPOs and other financial documents have become the avenues for siphoning public funds.
“If your records are not well kept. If you make a payment and you fail to keep a receipt, that is a clear route to fraud,” he said.
In the latest financial audit reports for the county executives for the year ended June 2023, at least six executives have adverse audit reports.
An adverse opinion means that the counties’ financial statements are distorted, misstated and do not accurately reflect their financial performance and health.
They include Governor Johnson Sakaja’s Nairobi, Governor Kimani Wamatangi’s Kiambu and Narok led by Governor Patrick Ole Ntutu.
Others are Nyamira headed by Governor Amos Nyaribo and Tana River led by Governor Godhana Dhadho.
In its reports on the scrutiny of the Auditor General’s reports for some 15 county executives for the 2019-20 financial year tabled in the Senate in February, Kajwang’s CPAC flagged late, delayed and incomplete financial documents as one of the major issues hindering financial accountability in counties.
The delays in submitting the documents to auditors, the committee believed, point to poor record keeping by the accountants.
“The committee observed that the county entities did not submit or made late submissions of the relevant documents to the Auditor General during the audit exercise contrary to section 62 of the Public Audit Act, 2025.
The panel recommended severe sanctions on the officers who fail to keep proper records thus delaying submissions.
The counties whose reports were scrutinised were Samburu, Wajir, Vihiga, Siaya, Nyeri, Nandi, Murang'a, Makueni and Bomet.
Others are Homa Bay, Tharaka Nithi, Kakamega, Kirinyaga, Meru and Nyandarua.