Nyanza county chiefs have been put on the spot over gross mismanagement of public resources during the months preceding last year’s General Election.
A new report by Auditor General Edward Ouko has unearthed flaws in financial management in all the six counties in the region.
Mr Ouko has raised concerns over how public funds were used by the former Kisumu County regime led by Jack Ranguma.
So dire were the malpractices that the county government operated about 112 secret bank accounts, all which were not disclosed in financial statements presented for audit.
In addition, the county government also failed to present bank statements for other six bank accounts with balances of about Sh19.8 million.
Ouko has also raised concerns over the failure by the executive to collect about Sh1.2 billion in some 23 revenue streams that had been projected.
Ranguma’s government failed to explain why the revenue was not collected.In the past few years, the county’s local revenue has been dropping steadily despite both former governor Ranguma and his successor Anyang’ Nyong’o sealing loopholes that led to the loss of revenue.
The government has also been put on the spot for promoting tribalism in appointments contrary to the National Cohesion and Integration Act, 2018, section 7(1).
“The payroll statistics revealed that 97 per cent of the employees were from the dominant ethnic community of Kisumu County,” said Ouko.