Cartoon depicting how MCA's and Governors are  "eating" (www.gadocartoons.com)

Cartoon depicting how MCA’s and Governors are “eating” (www.gadocartoons.com)

Kenyans who fought for and celebrated devolution should read this keenly as the devolution dream is being wasted by County Governments who are simply “eating” money meant for the citizens. The loopholes are so many, that I genuinely fear that we have created 47 – Anglo leasings across the counties.

Nevertheless, it is about time we educated ourselves about the corruption in the counties and hopefully, citizens will make it their duty to hold the leaders to account. If you have realized, you don’t ever hear of governors condemning corruption as much as they ask for “more funds”. You don’t hear of county leaders who are working towards stronger audit or prudent management of public resources. Instead they want to be in charge of security at the county level.

So how is this eating going on at your county? Do you know?

Ni Jukumu Letu.

Consumption at source

Let’s simplify this first. If your County collects sh1,000,000 in parking fees today and then uses that money to buy stationery, that money has been spent at source because it did not go to the County Revenue Fund. Spending the money at source is illegal.

Article 207 of the Constitution and Section 109 of the PFM Act, 2012 requires that all funds raised or collected on behalf of the County be deposited into the County Revenue Fund.

In the last Audit  six Counties (Nairobi City, Homa Bay, Machakos, Murang’a, Meru and Trans Nzoia) were spending revenue at source. This is one of the biggest eating avenues at the counties. No one can truly account for the amount collected, distorts county budget and is easy to manipulate.

Disposal of Assets

Public Procurement and Disposal Act – The purpose of this Act is to establish procedures for procurement and the disposal of un-serviceable, obsolete or surplus stores and equipment by public entities.

When the county governments came to power, there was a flurry of purchases; equipment, furniture and other consumables. The focus has always been on how “eating” happens during procurement, on other flipside do you wonder where all the old things go?

By law, your county should have a tender committee and a disposal committee. At the county level, the disposal committee should dispose assets as follows in an open and transparent manner.

(a) transfer to another public entity or part of a public entity, with or without financial adjustment;

(b) sale by public tender;

(c) sale by public auction;

(d) destruction, dumping or burying; or

(e) trade-in.

Now, are you able track how your county disposes assets or is that process opaque?

Weak or No internal Audit

Dear citizens, has your county published an audit report? Was the report done by by the credible body?

If your county is not showing proper internal audit, then they are not serious about county resources, service delivery or the governors manifesto. Audit is important to preventing fraud and misappropriation of funds. The process must always start within, before external audits.

One of the weaknesses noted in the last auditor general report was lack of capacity to effectively manage public resources due to poor/weak internal audit mechanisms. This means that counties have inadequate monitoring and evaluation systems. In fact, some counties such as Garissa completely lack Audit Committees.

Kakamega, Mombasa, Kericho are some of the counties with weak internal audit processes.

MCA’s

Members of County Assemblies role in counties is to represent the citizens who elect them and ensure that the county government discharges its mandate in providing services to Kenyans. They are not in any way entitled to a share of the county funds as now seems to be the case.

The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) set the maximum monthly allowance for MCA at Kshs.124,800. Notwithstanding Kakamega, Kirinyaga, Kisii, Migori, Nyandarua, Nyeri, Siaya, Taita Taveta, Trans Nzoia, Turkana, Uasin Gishu and Wajir exceeded the set amount and paid MCA’s more meaning funds were diverted from other budgeted purposes.

The second part follows.