Auditor General’s latest report on 11 county assemblies, shows that little has changed in the way the devolved units conduct their business.
Whereas Members of the County Assemblies (MCAs) are charged with the mandate to oversee the county executive, the reports indicate that they are still using all means, including subterfuge, to get an extra shilling from the taxpayer for work not done.
The report which was tabled in the Senate on Thursday and which cover the 2016/17 financial year, shows that the country has a long way to go in management of sitting allowances to MCAs, tenders, domestic and foreign travels.
The report shows that these are notorious avenues which the ward representatives use to fleece the public of funds through fictitious claims.
The flip side of the frugal nature of the county assemblies is captured in the auditor’s report for 2016/17 financial year of Kericho County Assembly.
According to the report, committees of the county assembly held various meetings to deliberate on various matters.
A sample of the 15 committees picked for audit shows that a total of 1,159 meetings were held during the year under review at a cost of Sh187 million.
Yet out of all these meetings only 18 reports and six statements were prepared and tabled in the plenary.
The Auditor-General Edward Ouko concludes that the residents may not have received full value for the huge public expenditure on the committee allowances amounting to Sh187 million.
The report notes that many of the committee meetings were not scheduled as there were no weekly programmes showing the business of the assembly and the schedule of the sitting of various committees.
“Most of the committee and plenary sittings were neither scheduled nor p
rogrammed as they did not appear on the website as required by the Standing Orders, therefore it is not possible to determine whether the meetings had substantive agenda of deliberations,” Mr Ouko says in the report.
In Nakuru, even though the county assembly has installed the biometric system to identify and monitor attendance to both plenary and various committee meetings, an analysis of the system by Mr Ouko revealed some members of the committee were paid allowances despite not attending. In other instances, members signed in and within a few minutes signed out.
“Cases where members just clocked in without evidence of clocking out were noted. Despite the installation of the biometric system, in most cases attendance to meetings continued to be recorded manually,” Mr Ouko says in the Nakuru County assembly audit report.
In Nyeri, Mr Ouko notes the assembly used Sh128 million for domestic and subsistence allowances for the MCAs and staff during various workshops, meetings, retreats and seminars held outside the assembly.
“However the payments were not supported by appropriate documentation such as invitation letters, programme of the seminars and reports emanating from the meetings held.
The same case is reported in Nyandarua where the auditor questions the validity and value of the money used for domestic travel and subsistence allowances.
According to the report, Sh4.9 million was paid to members of the committee for meetings planned to scrutinise the 2017/18 annual development plan at the Lake Naivasha Resort.
However, a similar amount had been paid to the assembly’s Trade and Industrialisation Committee in which the same MCAs who are members received allowances.
“The scrutiny of the allowances register revealed that some members were paid allowances for separate meetings held within the same time when they were supposed to be in Naivasha,” Mr Ouko says, pointing out that it was not explained how a member could be in two meetings running concurrently in different places.