Nairobi County on the spot over diversion of more than Sh560million staff funds
Nairobi County government is on the spot over alleged diversion of more than Sh560 million staff funds to unauthorized expenditures.
The Kenya County Government Workers Union (KCGWU) Nairobi branch secretary Festus Ngari, accused City Hall of failing to remit the statutory deductions and union dues despite making a requisition to the Controller of Budget (CoB).
“The diversion has resulted in county staff funds being frozen by different financial institutions and being charged exorbitant default penalties on their loans,” says Ngari.
According to KCGWU Nairobi branch secretary Festus Ngari, the diverted funds include Sacco loan deductions, National Hospital Insuarance Fund, National Social Security Fund, Pay as You Earn, salaries, welfare deductions and union dues.
The diverted funds include statutory deduction and union dues amounting to Sh490.47 million between October and December,2021 as well as staff claims for January 2022 totalling sh70 million.
The union now wants Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakango to carry out an investigation and audit the work plans for October, November and December 2021 to ascertain if public money was used prudently and responsibly.
In 2019, the county spent more than Sh600 million on ghost development projects in the 2019/2020 financial year.
According to a report, City Hall could not provide a list of development projects implemented during the period under review despite Sh632.1 million spent as development expenditure in the first six months.
“The total development expenditure of Sh632.1 million represented 5.6 per cent of the annual development budget of Sh11.27 billion. The county did not provide a list of development projects that were implemented during the period under review,” read in part the report tabled before Nairobi County Assembly.
Interestingly, during the period under review, the county government’s expenditure on domestic travel more than doubled compared to the same period in the financial year ending June 30, 2019.
The report showed that the domestic travel expenditure in the first six months hit Sh337.9 million, an increase of 114.7 percent from Sh157.35 million in the first half of 2018/2019.
