Trans Nzoia county boss Patrick Khaemba has found himself in in a hard tussle with the Auditor General Edward Ouko after an audit report of the financial year ending June 30, 2018.
In the financial year, Ouko has queried a Sh2 billion payment by the County government for contracts and services.
He says the county statement of receipts and payments reflects total payments of Sh5.8 billion whereas the IFMIS report reflects payments of Sh3.9 billion, a variance of Sh2 billion.
The auditor identified Sh1.2 billion pending bills not supported by documents such as LSO, invoices, inspection reports and goods receipt notes.
“Consequently the county management contravened national Treasury requirements that the accounting officer should institute stringent financial controls and maintain the financial discipline to achieve efficient use of resources,” Ouko says.
There was under-utilisation of resources of ShI billion. The county had an approved budget of Sh6.6 billion, including Sh4.6 billion for recurrent expenditure and Sh1.9 billion for development.
“The under absorption of the approved budget is an indication that some activities and development projects in the annual development plan were not implemented by the executive and this affects service delivery to residents of Trans Nzoia,” the audit says.
Ouko accuses the county of giving an unsatisfactory explanation on why many projects in the health sector remained incomplete yet the department only utilised Sh154 million in the last financial year against an approved budget of Sh592 million.
He also faults the direct use of internally collected revenues amounting to Sh36 million at the Kitale County and Mt Elgon sub county hospitals contrary to regulations in the Public Finance Management Act requiring that the money should be banked for necessary approvals before it is used.
The auditor general has also flagged the use of Sh228.9 million on the Kitale Bus Park project out of Sh339 million set aside for the now-stalled project after the contractor abandoned the site in Kitale town.