Controller of Budget exposes counties operating upto 300 bank accounts to cover up theft

During the first quarter of the 2024-2025 financial year, the 47 devolved units received Ksh.55 billion, with Ksh.7.3 billion for development and Ksh.47.8 billion for salaries and other expenditure.

Controller of Budget (CoB) Margaret Nyakang'o, in her report, has flagged Governors who are running multiple bank accounts which are used to conceal irregular expenditures.

Baringo Governor Benjamin Cheboi is on the spot for operating 292 bank accounts, 256 accounts said to be for health facilities. The CoB says the accounts are flouting the PFM Act.

The situation is even worse in Bungoma, where Governor Ken Lusaka is running 300 bank accounts that the report says are suspicious since they are not under the Central Bank of Kenya.

Other than operating 17 bank accounts, Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok has been flagged for using a manual payroll to pay personal emoluments amounting to Ksh.27 million, a process open to abuse.

Other counties operating the unlawful accounts in multiple commercial banks include Elgeyo Marakwet County (155 bank accounts), Kajiado (50), Embu (46), Kakamega (44), while Kwale and Migori are operating 64 and 76 bank accounts respectively.

The report covering the start of the financial year from July to October has also spotlighted counties and how they allocated and spent their development monies.

Narok Governor Patrick Ole Ntutu pumped Ksh.477 million to development in four months, while Kirinyaga's Anne Waiguru spent Ksh.378 million, and Busia's Paul Otuoma absorbed Ksh.328 million to development.

However, 10 counties spent zero shillings on development during the same period. They include Nairobi, Kajiado, Baringo, Lamu, Uasin Gishu and West Pokot counties.

Counties continued recording dismal performance in raising own-revenue; most of the devolved units recorded lowest collection, with others underdeclaring their collections.

Tana River collected 81% of their target banking Ksh.78 million, while Narok collected Ksh.2.9 billion that translated to 60% of their target. Samburu and Garissa both collected 36% and 27% of their targets respectively.

The CoB report also shows that the pending bills headache has refused to go away. Nairobi County has a Ksh.121 billion worth of pending bills, while Garissa owes Ksh.6 billion to service providers.

Kiambu owes Ksh.5.9 billion and Turkana has a total pending bill of Ksh.4.8 billion.

The Controller of Budget has told Governors to allocate funds to payment of pending bills as their first charge as recommended by the Senate.