The Nairobi County Assembly has been flagged for spending Sh81.53 million on MCAs' allowances in 2018-19 without supporting documents.
More than Sh85 million was spent on MCAs' allowances.
A report by the Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has also revealed personal allowances of Sh238 million were paid as part of salary meant for assembly staff.
Not a single schedule of meetings supported with attendance registers were provided for audit.
“Consequently, the accuracy, completeness, and validity of the expenditure of Sh81,525,600 incurred on sitting allowances could not be confirmed,” the report reads.
The report discloses Sh15.6 million was paid to some assembly staff through refunds of expenditure spent on domestic travel and subsistence allowances during the same year.
Gathungu said the payments were made despite the concerned staff failing to apply for imprest before trips.
“There was no explanation why the concerned staff did not apply for the imprest before undertaking various journeys. Consequently, the management was in breach of the regulations,” the report reads.
This violates Sections 91(2) and 93(4) of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015, on management of temporary imprest. It requires employees to make formal application for imprest before travel.
In March, a report from the county assembly liaison committee faulted the lawmakers for preferring retreats instead of attending committee sittings.
The committee chaired by Ruai MCA John Kamangu revealed that between February 4, 2020, and December 3, 2020, MCAs on 23 committees went for 45 retreats.
An MCA is entitled to a daily per diem of Sh14,000 in addition to Sh20,000 as transport allowance when they go for a retreat.
At least Sh22.5 million was spent during the 45 retreats on transport allowances.
The report also highlighted the MCAs preferred retreat destination was Mombasa.
The liaison report showed that different committees failed to table reports on their retreats, exposing the assembly to audit queries.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
