Murang’a County advised to pay pending bills worth Ksh.646.9M
A task-force
which was entrusted to audit and scrutinise pending bills by Murang’a county
government has recommended for payment of part of the bills amounting to Ksh.646.9
million.
The 11-member
committee which was formed on September 16 by Governor Irungu Kang’ata received
516 claims of pending bills amounting to Ksh. 2.47 billion.
Out of the
516 claims, the task force after auditing and scrutiny recommended 176 claims to
be considered for payment.
Speaking when
handing over the report to Murang’a deputy county governor, the vice chair of
the committee, Caroline Njoroge, said the task force considered payment to be
done through a four-year plan starting by December this year.
Njoroge noted
that 224 claims amounting to 1.5 billion shillings were found not recommendable
for payment until further scrutiny of various material such as availability of
relevant documents, evidence of supply of goods or proof of work done.
“The
remaining of 118 claims amounting to Ksh. 249.9 million were deemed to fall
outside the scope and mandate of the committee as they did not fall within the
financial years under the scrutiny,” added Njoroge.
Assumption of
office committee handed over Ksh.1.5 billion worth pending bills to the new
administration led by Kang’ata prompting formation of the task-force to audit
the bills.
Kang’ata
speaking during his inauguration as second governor for Murang’a promised to
pay only genuine bills thus the formation of the committee.
The task-force
was mandated to scrutinise accrued pending bills for two financial years that
is 2020/2021 and 2021/2022.
Njoroge
observed that some of the factors that led to accruing of pending bills
included lack of budget monitoring and control.
“We also found that the previous regime failed
to adhere to procurement processes as provided by the law thus leading to
pending bills,” she noted.
At the same
time a committee which was entrusted to undertake a staff audit revealed more
than 222 employees were not accounted for.
Presenting
the report, one of the committee members Maingi Kamau observed that 222
employees were drawing an annual salary of Sh. 195.5 million.
During
the head count, Kamau noted that 5, 366 presented themselves in the exercise
adding that 57 of the employees were found to be past retirement age.
“The 57
employees were aged above 60 years that they have attained retirement age and
annually they have been accruing more than Sh. 30 million annually,” stated
Kamau.
He added that
the exercise revealed that the county administration was spending more than
59.5 percent of its revenue in recurrent expenditure.
“The recurrent expenditure is much more than
what is recommended by the public finance management regulations. This strained
the county government from implementing development projects,” explained Kamau.
He further
said the former administration externally contracted services at a cost of 4.9
million per month, noting the services could be rendered by internal staff.
The committee
said if the gaps found in the human resources are sealed, the county government
can save Ksh.317 million annually.
Speaking
after receiving the reports, the deputy governor Stephen Munania lauded the
committees saying the information they provided will help the county
administration improve its service delivery.
He promised
that the recommendation given will be taken into consideration and help the
county government seal loopholes where money meant for development was being
lost.
“The reports have provided needful information
which will help us streamline our workforce and in doing procurement as
required by the law,” he noted.
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