The Senate County Public Accounts Committee has proposed to deny the MCAs absolute powers to oversight the executive and the assembly.
“We need to have a conversation around oversight. Oversight of the county assemblies should be an exclusive mandate of the Senate,” committee chairman Moses Kajwang’ said.
Kajwang’ spoke during a meeting with the leadership of the Nairobi City County Assembly where the members of the assembly Public Accounts Committee poured out their frustrations in oversighting assemblies.
During the meeting at KICC last Thursday, Assembly PAC members lamented about being denied financial documents with their attempts to summon the clerk falling on deaf ears.
The Clerk is the chief accounting officer of the county assembly. The officer is mandated to explain financial expenditures before the Public Accounts Committee of the county assembly.
In Parliament, the Senate Clerk, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Parliamentary Service Commission, appears before the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly to respond to audit queries.
“When we issue summons to the clerk, he is supposed to sign the same summons. He does not do that. He ends up not appearing,” Kileleshwa MCA Robert Alai said.
The City Assembly has had damning audit reports, with Auditor General Nancy Gathungu rendering adverse opinions in the last four financial years.
An adverse opinion implies that the county assembly’s financial statements are distorted, misstated and do not accurately reflect its financial performance and health.
Currently, the MCAs are the primary oversight of the assembly and the executive.
They scrutinise the financial books of all funds received and spent by the two arms of a county government.
The Senate, through its watchdog committee—CPAC and Senate County Public Investment and Special Funds Committee—also oversight the two arms of the county government.
But in the new proposal that could trigger uproar among the MCAs, the committee suggests to limit the oversight mandate of the ward reps.
Kajwang’ said the MCAs should oversight funds created by legislations passed by the county assembly.
Any funds established by a national legislation should be oversighted by the Senate, Kajwang’ proposed.
“Oversight of financial statements arising out of regulation of the county assembly should be done by the county assembly, exclusively,” Kajwang said.
The Homa Bay Senator added, “What are these regulations? Liquor fund regulations, bursaries and all those funds established by regulations of the country assembly. The Senate does not have to come in it.”
However, he said the Senate should have an absolute mandate to scrutinise the usage of funds established by a national legislation.
They include County Revenue Fund and the County Emergency Fund which are established by the national law.
“It will bring about some neatness. Let us clear these things so that we can have a conversation on how to restructure oversight,” Kajwang’ said.
“But you will not be able to oversight the executive if this is the state of affairs because you need certain skills to look at the books of the executive,” he added.
