Kiambu County spent Sh19.5million on airtime, Auditor General reveals amid graft claims
The office of the Auditor General has raised serious queries on the misuse of public funds by the Kiambu county government.
The county headed by Governor James Nyoro spent a whooping Sh1.9 billion for payments for purchase of goods and services and the balance Sh29 .9 million for payments of communication, supplies and service payments which in turn includes cash payments of Sh19.5 which incurred airtime and data bundles for the year ended 30 June, 2020.
However, there are assertions that the claimed vote head could have been used just as a conduit to divert money by the governor’s office in paying unsanctioned political activities.
The audit by the Auditor General Nancy Gathungu revealed that the respective payments were not supported with any documentary evidence, including electronic tax register issued by the respective vendors.
“Consequently, the occurrence and proprietary of expenditure totaling Sh19, 528,653 incurred on communication, supplies and services could not be confirmed,” read the report.
According to the county government, in the expenditure for purchase of airtime and data bundles consists of payments made to Safaricom amounting to Sh10, 985,421.
“The balance thereof consists of airtime purchased through issued imprests whose supporting documents have been availed. (Annexure 4.1b surrender vouchers)
“We wish to indicate the documents had not been availed to the auditors at the time of audit since there was an ongoing parallel PAYE reconciliation with the Kenya Revenue Authority but they have since availed,” stated the county.
On domestic travel, the auditor disclosed that under the use of goods and services is an expenditure amounting to Sh204, 729,044 incurred on domestic travel and subsistence.
Out of the Sh204,729,044, Members of the County Assembly (MCAs)of Kiambu and county staff were given allowances totaling to Sh58,923,400 paid to activities designated as benchmarking trips, retreats and consultative meetings in Naivasha and Mombasa.
The county management did not explain why the County Executive funded those trips despite the County Assembly had its own budget for such activities.
