A Senate oversight committee now wants about Sh5 billion spent by the Council of Governors and County Assemblies Forum in the 10 years audited.
In the call that could put the lawmakers at loggerheads with the governors and MCAs, the senators also want county executives and assemblies to stop funding the bodies.
The Senate Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) argued that the two are illegally spending public funds as they are not anchored in law.
“We are going to insist that the CoG and CAF stop the bleeding of public money and ask the auditor to audit the funds that have been spent in the last 10 years,” team chairman Moses Kajwang said.
The Homa Bay Senator spoke during the grilling of Meru speaker Ayub Bundi and clerk Jacob Keirari over audit queries.
The committee put the two on the spot for contributing public money to CAF.
Each of the 47 county executives and assemblies have been contributing Sh5 million annually to run the operations of the CoG and CAF respectively.
This implies that county executives have contributed Sh2.23 billion to CoG since the advent of devolution 10 years ago.
This is approximately the same amount the county assemblies have sent to CAF. Currently, only Mombasa county assembly is not a member of the forum.
The cash caters to payment of rent and salaries of CoG and CAF secretariat and head offices.
However, the funds usage has never been audited by the Auditor General as the two entities are not anchored in law.
The CoG is a creation of section 19 of the Intergovernmental Relations, 2012.
However, the law does not provide the counties to fund the activities of the council.
As such, the county governments have been contributing to the council since its creation.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has been flagging the payment as irregular, as it violates the law.
But the governors have been arguing that the CoG has not been receiving funding from the National Treasury as its secretariat is not anchored in law.
Consequently, they have been pushing for amendment to the law to anchor CoG secretariat to enable it get funding.
“There is established a Council of County Governors, which shall consist of governors of the 47 counties,” the Act reads.
Kajwang said that his committee is going to summon the leadership of the CoG and select speakers of county assemblies to explain why they have been funding the two bodies.
The CoG provides a forum for consultation among county governments, facilitates capacity building for governors and provides a platform for sharing of information on the performance of the counties.
CAF, on the other hand, was created in 2013 as the coordinating body of the 47 county assemblies. It is registered as a society under the Societies Act.
“CAF is mandated to support county assemblies in performing their three core functions; law making, oversight and representation,” CAF states on its website.
According to the committee, CoG and CAF are illegal entities as they are not created by the Constitution or Act of Parliament to warrant them spend public funds.
“Even at CoG, we are demanding an audit,” Kajwang said.
“Last week, we had devolution conference. Every participant paid Sh20,000 and in that hall, we had like 100,000 people. The Senate contributed Sh20 million and each county also contributed. How will all these monies be accounted for?” Kajwang’ posed.
