Mombasa Ali Hassan Joho is not a saint. His county has been exposed in a new twist how it oversaw the minting billions of taxpayers money.
The report released by the auditor general reveals the high levels of unaccountability in the management of funds in Mombasa.
The audit for the year ending June 2018, exposes flaws in the management of revenue, unwarranted expenditure, and loss of funds in stalled projects.
The Sh6 billion scrutiny, includes non-payment of Sh3.5 billion in statutory deductions.
The monies are in respect to income taxes (Sh165 million), VAT (Sh180 million), pension funds (Sh2.6 billion), NHIF (Sh2.3 million) and Sh433 million in KRA arrears.
Auditor General Edward Ouko has warned that non-compliance with statutory requirements will lead to heavy penalties and may affect funds available for budgeted activities.
He further flagged Sh654 million not banked in the county revenue fund account in contravention of the law.
Of this amount, the county only explained Sh605 million casting doubt on the whereabouts of Sh50 million.
The county also received Sh388 million as a conditional grant for supporting Level 5 Coast General Hospital but only Sh92.2 million was disbursed to the facility.
“In the foregoing circumstances, the accuracy of exchequer releases amounting to Sh296 million for the year ended June 2018 could not be confirmed,” Ouko says in the report tabled in Parliament recently.
Joho’s administration was also found to have underspent Sh1.3 billion of the approved budget “indicating that some development activities planned for the year were not undertaken. This implies that funds were lying idle at the expense of other deserving areas. There is a need to re-evaluate the budgeting process to focus more on priority areas.”
The county could not explain a variance of Sh9.1 billion in amounts reported in submitted financial statements and those in IFMIS.