Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has called for an audit of billions allocated to the defunct Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS), saying he inherited a massive financial mess.
Appearing before the Senate County Public Accounts committee on Monday February 27, Mr Sakaja said the county government was in a free fall when he took over.
He urged the committee to press for an audit of Sh27 billion allocated to NMS and the resultant Sh16.3 billion in pending bills left behind by the agency.
The senators pushed for ex-NMs Director General Mohamed Badi and former State House Comptroller Kinuthia Mbugua, as the accounting officer for NMS, to appear before the committee to answer the concerns.
The City Hall boss told the committee, chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’, that since Mr Mbugua was the accounting officer for NMS, he is better placed to explain how the Sh43.3 billion was used.
The governor said the Executive Office of the President, where NMS was domiciled, is better placed to give details on the financial management of the city under the defunct national government entity.
Consequently, he urged the Senate to press Auditor General Nancy Gathungu to sanction a special audit of the funds allocated to NMS.
“The audit is necessary because we want to know where the Sh43 billion went yet NMS had only four county functions. It will be interesting to see the report by the auditor general on this,” said Mr Sakaja.
Mr Sakaja said the county government was in the financial doldrums when they took over but they have since managed to turn things around and are now collecting on average Sh90 million daily as revenue since January.
“For the last six months that I have been in power I have strived to put the county on the path to efficient service delivery,” said the governor.
Pressed by Senator Kajwang to show why the committee should not send him back to prepare a better response to the audit queries relating to the financial year ended June, 2020, Mr Sakaja said he is not in a position to respond to audit queries relating to the financial year since NMS is yet to fully handover to his administration.
“Let me be honest with you. It is impossible to provide some of the documents since they are in the Executive Office of the President. For instance, NMS locked and shut the system they were using and migrated it and so we cannot access it,” he said.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna wondered why Mr Sakaja had not declared from the onset that it was not possible to get financial documents sought by the auditor general and the committee.
“The governor should have informed the committee of the challenges he was facing so that we take the necessary action by summoning the former Director General of Nairobi Metropolitan Services,” said Mr Sifuna.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said it was clear that there was no proper handing over of assets and liabilities from the NMS to Governor Sakaja administration and that the past regime needed to be taken to task over the matter.
“Is it possible to have Badi, Mr Mbugua, and Sakaja together to sort out this issue? I think there are issues that the two are better placed to answer. The auditor general and the Senate have the powers to compel the two to appear before us,” he said.
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah echoed Senator Cherargei’s sentiments, saying the law is clear on the personal culpability of State officers even after leaving office.
“NMS must comply with the law. We are Parliament. We have teeth. Let us bite. We don’t want to do reports just for the sake,” said the senator.
Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka supported his colleagues saying the committee needs to deliberate whether to summon the two ex-officials to explain the expenditure of funds allocated to the NMS.
Senator Kajwang said the Senate has been given powers by the constitution to seek documents that will help unravel audit queries and that the committee will not hesitate to use that power whenever it is required like in the current situation with Nairobi County.
