NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 22 – Members of the Nairobi County Assembly are now questioning the Nairobi City County Drinks Control and Licensing Board over unaccounted expenditures amounting to over Sh500 million.
The Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday heard from the office of the Auditor General that the board has been collecting revenues from the liquor sector, and spending it at source against the Public Finance Management Act.
The Committee’s Acting Chairman Robert Alai said they are concerned by the idea of spending at source without any financial statements, without checks and balances and no show of anyone holding them to account.
The Kileleshwa Ward representative said they will also be interrogating other county officials including County Executive Committee for Finance Allan Igambi, Ex-Finance Chief Officer Mohammed Sahal and Ex-Director Liquor Board Hesbon Agwena, over the same.
” They produced block statements without any itemized spending so you can’t tell what was spent on what and that’s very wrong for accounting and especially in the public sector. We expect to have the Board next week so that they can shed light on these weighty matters,” Alai stated.
According to the Auditor’s report for the financial year ending June 2020, the Board failed to comply with the law in submitting its financial statements, as it is yet to submit financial statements for audit since its inception in 2014.
The report shows that financial statements for the financial year ended June 30, 2022 were submitted to the Office of the Auditor General on June 21, 2022, which was more than one year and eight months after the statutory deadline of September 30, 2020.
“This was contrary to section 47 (1) of the Public Audit Act, 2015 which states that financial statements under the Constitution, the PFM Act 2012 and other legislation, shall be submitted to the Auditor General within three months after the end of fiscal year which the accounts relate,” reads part of the report.
Given the circumstances, the Auditor General Nancy Gathungu reported that her office couldn’t confirm the accuracy, validity and completeness of the statements, hence citing the management for breach of the law.
The Auditor General in her report also flagged unsupported expenditure of millions of shillings, with total receipts totalling to sh 427,267, 499, and unexplained payments amounting to sh 277,304,402 for the year ended June 30, 2020.
Gathungu reported that supporting documents for the above expenditure including receipt books, cash books, payment vouchers, ledgers and supporting schedules were not provided for audit contrary to the PFM Act, which such to be maintained for accounts.
“In the circumstances, the accuracy, completeness and validity of receipts and payment of sh 427,267,499 and sh 277,304, 402 respectively could not be confirmed,” the Auditor submitted.
