The Senate Public Accounts Committee has ordered a forensic audit into the alleged loss of some Sh18 billion said to have been embezzled from the Nairobi city county government.
The committee chaired by Homabay Senator Moses Kajwang called for the audit following revelations made by the office of the Auditor-General exposing what audit reports argued were widespread corruption and financial mismanagement in the city county.
The committee made the recommendations after it met with Nairobi City governor Johnson Sakaja and a team from State House led by State House Comptroller Kato Ole Metito to address the audit queries for the financial years 2017-2021.
The State House team appeared before the committee to respond to the queries on behalf of the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS).
The city county is under scrutiny over the misuse of funds, most of which are said to have been embezzled by different office holders in the guise of tenders and projects for the county.
And as a result of these allegations, the committee has directed the auditor general to conduct a special audit within the next three months. The committee said the decision is to help get to the bottom of the massive loss.
The committee session also revealed that the county government had been recording growing discrepancies between the revenues declared by the county government and the actual amounts collected.
It is suspected that this was as a result of a well-coordinated scheme by some officials in the county to embezzle revenues.
The committee also noted that the situation had been worsened by the lack of access to the county’s revenue system, which has left operations paralyzed and hindered responses to audit queries.
However, in his response governor Sakaja argued that the gaps in the county’s financial systems and the discrepancies occurred during the tenure of the Nairobi Metropolitan System.
During the auditors’ analysis, it was discovered that the county reportedly lost an astounding Sh18.46 billion over the course of three financial years.
To verify these figures and uncover the truth behind the missing funds, access to the revenue system is crucial. However, both the county government and auditors have faced insurmountable challenges in accessing the system.
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