Sports Ministry on the sport for dubious multi-million payouts

Sports Ministry is on the spot for dubious multi-million payouts to sports federation and unregestered organisations.

The ministry is said to have irregularly disbursed Sh529.9 to organisations that are not registered by the Commissioner of Sports.

Kenya Open Golf Limited and the Kenya Open Ladies Golf Union received money from the ministry contrary to legal provisions.

“KOGL received over Sh250 million, which is irregular and not a proper charge to public funds,” Auditor General Nancy Gathungu said.

Gathungu revealed that Kenya Open Golf Limited paid Sh167.9 million to various contractors without valid and formal contracts.

According to her, the department acted contrary to Section 135 (1) of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015.

For an organisation to qualify for funding from the Sports Ministry, it is supposed to be registered with the Commissioner of Sports.

Gathungu has queried payments worth Sh57 million in allowances and bonuses to Harambee Stars players and the technical bench.

According to Gathungu, the expenditure for the team that travelled for African Cup of Nations camps in various countries were not supported by approved rates.

“Bank statements and cash books were not presented for audit review to confirm amounts transferred to the bank for payments,” she said.

The ministry is also said to have disbursed Sh11 million to Football Kenya Federation president Nick Mwendwa without requisite documents or authorisation between April 25, 2019 and November 29,2019.

Without the requisite documentation, Gathungu said it was not possible to confirm the validity of amount paid to the federation president.

Additionally, Gathungu flagged Sh111.6 million that was approved for disbursement to cater for accommodation and team allowances.

Contrary to the policy guiding such expenditure, the funds were incurred by the fund management on behalf of sports federations during the year under review.

Further, the ministry is said to have disbursed money to an organisation that has not signed a contract with.

Sh6 million was paid to the Kenya School of Government, yet there was no document to confirm that such a contract existed between the parties.

The Auditor General also flagged Sh5.3 million that was wrongly coded and paid outside payroll using payment vouchers.

According to her, the accuracy and validity of the reported compensation of employees expenditure of Sh187,772,897 could not be ascertained.

The auditor has also revealed that Sh3.2 million and Sh8 million were irregularly disbursed to the Kenya National Sports Council and Gor Mahia Football Club, respectively.

The expenditures were not supported by confirmations from the recipients.

Gathungu also took issue with an unpaid balance of Sh81,823,065, which was found to be a pending bill that was not disclosed.

In the same vein, the State Department irregularly paid Sh682,192 as arrears of special duty allowance in financial year 2018-19.

However, some of the officers had been called upon to perform duties of posts that were more than two grades higher than their substantive grades.

Others were paid the allowance for more than six months contrary to the provisions of Public Service Commission – Human Resource Policy and Procedures Manual for the Public Service, 2016.

Further, the State Department was found to have 10 vehicles which were not registered in its name, thereby casting doubts on their ownership.

Gathunga said the State Department was in breach of law and it could not be confirmed that the assets had been properly safeguarded.

The department also failed to explain why it did not remit employee pensions amounting to Sh7,207,329.

The fund did not provide evidence of the existence of unremitted employee pensions, considering that no contract had been signed with the administrator as at June 30, 2020.