Nakuru County Civil Society Organizations Forum(NACCSOF) has called on Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission(EACC) to move with speed and investigate possible abuse of office, dereliction of duty, fraud, and theft in the budget lines as revealed in the Auditor General’s report for 2022/2023 for Nakuru county resources.
Addressing Journalists in Nakuru on Thursday April 18, 2024, the CSOs led by Co- convener Paul Masese also urged the County Assembly of Nakuru and the Executive to provide a public justification for the expenditure, name and the individuals involved, and enumerate the actions taken to address the audit queries as well as measures put in place to prevent the malpractice from recurring in the future.
The CSOs have also called on the Senate Public Accounts Committee to demand for responses to the audit queries and recommend appropriate action.
NACCSOF while considering the total queried amount and fire implications on Service delivery, has urged the public oversight Institutions to move swiftly and initiate a forensic investigation to determine the gravity of the issues and generate evidence for prosecution and or asset recovery.
“On our part, we shall scale up vigilance through budget analysis, monitoring, and engagement. We shall also continue to sensitize members of the public to effectively undertake their civilian oversight role,” stated Masese.
According to Masese, if no action is taken, then they will partner with other networks to commence a legal petition.
In a statement read by Co- convener Bancy Kubutha, the Auditor General’s Report for Nakuru County Executive Financial Year 2022/2023 reveals multiple violations of the public Finance Management Principles and misappropriation of public resources by the County Government of Nakuru.
According to the report, a total of Ksh 4.3 Billion, which is 33% of the county expenditure has been queried on the basis of lack of supporting documents, irregular expenditure, failure to reconcile books of accounts and violations of procurement laws.
“Our analysis of previous audit reports show that these queries have been recurring which denotes weak internal controls and non-implementation of the audit recommendations,” stated Bancy.
The Nakuru CSOs have expressed worries about the county Government’s commitment to grow its own source of revenue to finance its budget sustainability.
The Auditor General flagged failure to collect revenue from 1,087 approved liquor outlets which is 42% of the 2,609 total number of the approved liquor outlets in Nakuru County.
NACCSOF is also concerned that out of Ksh 6.9 Billion spent on compensation to employees, a whopping Ksh 1.5 Billion could not be traced to the county payroll with no explanation from the county government for this variance.
The CSOs are disturbed that the County Executive did not provide supporting documents for Ksh 29 million spent on domestic travel and subsistence allowance.
“We are more than concerned that Members of County Assembly are equally implicated for having irregularly drawn Ksh 15 million and Ksh 40 million as Domestic travel and subsistence allowance and facilitation respectively from the County Executive vote, despite having their own vote. This hampers their ability and moral authority to demand for accountability on the same in line with their oversight mandate,” stated the CSOs.
Key Gaps identified by NACCSOF include weak Budget Control and accountability mechanisms, Lack of integrity among the county government officials, lack of prudence in the utilization of public resources as well as low level of transparency.
Author: Pristone Mambili
A trained Journalist with passion for Radio and online Writing.