Makueni County Governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana has over the recent past maintained his County managerial record at the top. This is the County boss who built a modern children hospital at the lowest cost. He also started the County’s own daily plant. Once again, Kibwana has beaten his peers in financial management and received a clean bill of health from Auditor General Edward Ouko.
The audit for the financial year ending June 2018 reveals the county applied resources in a lawful and effective way.
“I believe the evidence I have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for my opinion. I have determined that there are no key audit matters to communicate in my report,” Ouko says.
However, the auditor sounded an alarm over 26 projects valued at about Sh146 million which have either not started or have stalled.
“Failure to implement the projects on time could lead to cost escalation and may attract litigation by the contractors,” the report reads.
The county failed to meet its revenue target but improved by Sh102 million compared to last year when it collected slightly above Sh200 million.
Ouko asked Makueni to put up measures towards improving its own revenue performance other than blame missed targets on being overambitious.
During the year under review, the county absorbed Sh7.6 billion, being 74 per cent of the total expenditure budget of Sh9.6 billion.
“Failure to absorb funds budgeted for hampers service delivery to the detriment of residents who need value for money,” Ouko says.
He reveals that the county lacks a risk management policy for fraud prevention and internal controls.
Makueni was also found to be lacking a disaster recovery plan – to secure the county government’s ability to meet its obligations to provide services.
“In the absence of this plan, the county government will not achieve the functions in case of a disaster that affects its operations,” the audit says.