Two governors grilled over mismanagement of Covid-19 funds
Governors of Nandi and Embu were yesterday were on Friday put on the spot over expenditure of Covid-19 funds.
A Senate committee investigating the Sh4 billion scandal involving the 47 counties put the pair to task to shed light on audit queries raised by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in a special audit report.
In a sitting committee led by Michael Mbito, the governors were pressed to explain how they used millions of shillings meant to fight coronavirus pandemic.
“Some of the errors noted were not genuine and that in some instance the counties had to procured more items in readiness for the second wave a move the auditor general says was contrary to the procurement procedures,” said the governors.
Nandi County used over 200 millions in medical allowances and procurement of items yet the funds were not budgeted for and approved by the county assembly.
While Embu County executives who had appeared virtually before the committee over Covid-19 funds queries denied payment of undelivered items, and double payment of staff.
A preliminary study of the audit indicates that at least 12 governors may find themselves in trouble over massive misuse of the funds allocated to them.
This is as pressure continues to mount on the government to account for Covid-19 funds.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last month gave the government until the end of May to provide an account of how it spent monies advanced to it by global partners on Covid-19 as part of the conditions of accessing a Sh255 billion shilling loan.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), which has picked up the matter, is establishing if there is a criminal liability on the part of the governors from the counties in question.
“The procurement and inventory management systems for the county governments were found to be inefficient and ineffective in accounting for donated and procured items thereby raising doubt on value for money for these expenditures,” observed Gathungu in her report.
“EACC and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) should conduct further investigations to establish acts of criminality in inventory management of Covid-19 related items,” said the auditor.
In total, the 47 counties received Sh7,705,900 out of the Sh214,908,853,825 that the government borrowed between March 13 when the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Kenya to July 31 last year.
