Embattled Kiambu governor Ferdinand Waititu did not budget, receive or spend money in the bizarre audit report which was questioned by the Senate Accounts Committee.
This is according to a report from the Auditor General’s office, the body mandated with flagging erroneous expenditure by state offices.
A meeting between the auditor General, Controller of budget and the Council of governors has concluded that the audit report that has raised an uproar among Kenyans is erroneous and needs to be called back.
βThe Kiambu County and the other counties did not budget, receive or spend the monies as indicated in the financial report,β a statement issued after the meeting indicated.
Waititu was unable to explain how he set aside more than 2.5 billion shillings for functions that are not related to Kiambu county like co-ordination of State House functions and South Sudan Peace talks.
βI do not know where those figures and accounts came from and you all know it is not possible for counties to finance any State House function because we do not have budgets for that. This is something that has been done without my knowledge just to make my administration look bad,β stated Waititu.
It later emerged that it was not only Kiambu that had the bizarre budgetary allocations. Kerinyaga and Nyeri County have also been implicated.
Kakamega, the home of CoG chair Wycliffe Oparanya is also accused of setting aside 115 million for South Sudan peace talks.
At least 7 counties have had bizarre budgets with Nyeri and Kerinyaga blaming the government’s IFMIS system.
But Tuesday’s meeting has resolved to form a multi-stakeholder technical committee who should conduct an investigation and submit a report in 14 days.
It will be chaired by the Controller of Budget and comprise the CoG, Treasury and Auditor General.
The Senate Public Accounts and Investments Committee has in the meantime been asked to suspend appearance by governors over the 2017/18 audit queries.