-
The report said that out of the Sh 143, 615, 287 pending bills presented by the management for review, only documents worth Sh 76, 993, 173 were availed for review.
-
Out of Sh 76, 993, 177 pending bills reviewed, bills worth Sh 46, 201, 608 were found to be irregular and bills worth Sh 20, 013, 608 were partially supported.
Image: HILTON OTENYO
An audit report has revealed that Kakamega county assembly irregularly paid Sh80,225,857 to staff in the last two years.
The internal audit report revealed the assembly made irregular payments amounting to Sh30,808,880 as special salary and house allowance to staff outside the Salaries and Remuneration Commission guidelines.
Kakamega county director of internal audit services David Mboya said another Sh29,014,988 was paid as special salaries.
The report covered July 2020 and December 2022 period.
An irregular payment of salary arrears amounting to Sh27,845,100 was paid to MCAs by the assembly.
This payment was against the SRC prescribed rates contained in circular number SRC/TS/CGOVT/3/16 dated November 20, 2013.
The circular gave guidelines on salaries to be paid to assembly speakers, deputy speakers and MCAs.
According to the report, each MCA received the SRC prescribed salary amount of Sh 144, 375 and another Sh10, 13 in form of arrears.
The report established that car and mortgage loan arrears worth Sh 368,313,291 were outstanding.
The assembly according to the report also failed to withhold and pay PAYE, VAT and rental tax amounting to Sh39,67,8,046 within the review period.
Review of sampled payroll deductions revealed unremitted deductions worth Sh40,477,913 and related fines and penalties totaling to Sh67,318,499.
The review noted weaknesses in key processes such as lack of approval of transactions, failure to follow procurement process, lack of accountability of items purchased, maintenance of proper records and failure to align expenditure within the budget guidelines.
It also revealed that staff and MCAs were not accounting for per-diems taken while on official duties, with over Sh40m in imprest unaccounted for.
The report also said that the assembly irregularly recruited interns who consumed over Sh5m and also employed unqualified staff.
The report recommends that the county assembly initiates payroll clean up exercise and establish the total and correct number of its employees.
It wants those employed using fake certificates sacked and disciplinary action taken.
“The accounting officer to recover all irregularly spent public funds, provide supporting documents for all unsupported expenses and account for cash not accounted for,” it reads.
The report said that out of the Sh143,615,287 pending bills presented by the management for review, only documents worth Sh76,993,173 were availed for review.
It says documents for pending bills amounting to Sh66,662,109 were never availed to auditors for review.
Out of Sh76,993,177 pending bills reviewed, bills worth Sh46,201,608 were found to be irregular and bills worth Sh20,013,608 were partially supported.
“Only bills worth Sh9,963,611 were fully supported,”the audit says.
Th report established that payments worth Sh602,946,893 were not accounted for in the period under review.
Staff of the assembly were paid per-diems totaling Sh178,090,012 directly into their banks accounts for attending undocumented seminars, trainings and meetings.
It says that MCAs could also not provide any accountability document in respect of per -diems worth Sh 196,795,735 paid to them for the same reason.
Assembly speaker James Namatsi who also heads the assembly service board said that the board commissioned the audit to assist it strengthen systems in management of its affairs.
“We have already implemented the recommendations made in the report and were seeking legal opinion on how to recover monies irregularly paid to assembly staff and MCAs,” he said.
“This money was paid to both past and some sitting MCAs who also have some pending bills and we are mulling attacking the monies owed right them to recover the money,” he said.