The Kenya Water Towers Agency (KWTA) is on the spot over Sh31 million on allowances for board meetings.
According to an audit by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu, the agency paid board members to attend 78 meetings in 2019, way above the permissible four (quarters) annual meetings per year.
The Auditor-General states that the agency did not have an annual work plan to justify the high number of meetings contrary to the Mwongozo code of governance.
“The Auditor-General also questioned the meetings in view of the fact that the agency did not have an annual work plan to justify the high number of meetings. The State Corporation Act caps the number of board meetings at four per year spread quarterly,” read the report.
The Mwongozo code of governance that governs operations of state corporations makes it for annual work plan mandatory.
The Auditor also raised the red flag over the inefficiency of the fund’s management of Sh50 million given under the Water Towers Conservation Fund.
According to the report, a capital account was opened for the fund at the Central Bank of Kenya with a deposit of Sh50 million to fund its initial activities.
However, the fund has remained idle in the CBK account as it is yet to be implemented by the management.
The Auditor General’s reports have increasingly highlighted questionable expenditures at various public institutions, exposing rampant corrupt dealings and suspect expenditure, which point at gross disregard for procurement and public finance management regulations, which lead to loss of public funds.
Earlier this month, the Information Communication Authority (ICTA) was put on the spot over an irregular expenditure of Sh123.9 million of grant funds in the Financial Year ending June 2020.
According to Gathungu, the money was proceeds from grants from local and foreign lenders
“The amount represents cumulative funds transfers to a special project bank account whose expenditure requires that returns be made to the National Treasury (NT),” said Gathungu.
