County Officials On The Spot Over 3 Secret Bank Accounts
Tuesday, the Senate County Public Accounts Committee requested that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) investigate the Turkana County Assembly for approving transactions outside of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS).
In a statement, the Senate disclosed that the committee has ordered the leadership of the County Assembly to submit reconciliation statements for three bank accounts to the Office of the Auditor General for verification that the funds were not misappropriated.
Senate’s dispatch noted that the Assembly operates and maintains four bank accounts which as of June 30, 2021, held deposits totaling Ksh32 million.
The legislators want to know why only Ksh250 of the Sh32 million in the four bank accounts was reconciled in IFMIS, according to the documents submitted by the County Assembly for reconciliation.
According to the legislators, the County Assembly did not submit supporting documentation with the financial statements for reconciliation, which is contrary to the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board’s guidelines.
“You must provide IFMIS reconciliation of the three bank accounts to the Auditor General within the 7 days,” Senator Moses Kajwang, the Committee Chairperson directed.
In addition, according to the documentation, the Assembly borrowed Ksh73 million from the Car Loan and Mortgage financing scheme.
According to the Assembly, the borrowings
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“Most of the payments for DSA were done outside IFMIS since the funds were obtained from the Fund Account,” the Senate said in the statement.
The Committee concluded that the borrowing was illegal because Public Finance Management statutes prohibit such withdrawals by finance managers.
As a result, the committee questioned the conditions under which the fund manager withdrew significant sums of money and the purpose of the funds.
During the meeting, it became clear that the Assembly faces a significant challenge in terms of human resource capacity, which has jeopardized the administration of public finances.
“There are variances between the financial statements and IFMIS balances, Unreconciled and unsupported Bank Balances, unsupported assets, irregular use of deposits and Retentions of monies,” the Senate further observed.
Due to lengthy outstanding imprests, the lack of an effective internal control audit unit, and the absence of an Independent Internal Audit Function, the legislators determined that the County Assembly had violated the law governing imprest management.
In addition, they noted a violation of the law on fiscal responsibility regarding the wage bill, as well as the absence of a risk management policy and the labeling of fixed assets.
County Officials On The Spot Over 3 Secret Bank Accounts
