Nakuru County is grappling with a myriad of issues that could undermine the region’s sustainability as home to one of the five cities in the country, a senate committee has warned.
A senate watchdog committee has raised concerns over what it termed as “serious inadequacies” in the county executive, ranging from human resources to financial management incapacities.
The Senate County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC), during a sitting on Wednesday, established that Nakuru County is operating on autopilot without a county public service board (CPSB), an audit committee, a chief officer of finance, or a qualified head of accounting services.
“So to put it in context, Nakuru county does not have a county public service board, does not have an audit committee, does not have a chief officer of finance and does not have a qualified head of accounting services, four very critical institutions in the county,” stated the CPAC chairperson, Senator Moses Kajwang (Homabay).
Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika.
Photo credit: John Njoroge | Nation Media Group
Governor Susan Kihika, appearing before the committee, was at pains to explain why her administration was running without fundamental structures.
In response, the county boss attributed it to the retirement of the former finance director, which coincided with the expiry of the CPSB term limit on July 31.
“We had one director fiancé who recently retired. Currently, we are recruiting for that position,” stated Governor Kihika.
“Unfortunately, a lot of it lapsed at the same time, CPSB, the term ending, and the director retiring. There is not much we could do. We could not rush them. The county assembly is on recess.”
Regarding the absence of an audit committee, the Governor stated that despite advertising the positions last year, the recruitment process could not proceed as most of the applicants were not qualified.
Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika.
Photo credit: Richard Maosi | Nation Media Group
However, the senators were sceptical about the Governor’s response, considering the county is yet to set up an audit committee a year after advertising the positions.
“If you advertised last year and today there is no audit committee, that is a serious violation of the Public Finance Management (PFM) act regulations,” stated Kajwang.
The senators wondered how Nakuru, which is a big county, was unable to attract qualified professionals to sit in the audit committee in comparison to ‘small’ counties such as Isiolo, which have been able to set up audit committees.
According to the Treasury Officer, an audit committee is important to offer assurance to the management that internal processes are serving the purpose for which they were intended.
The committee’s report gives assurance to the management that all is well. Without the audit committee, that assurance is lacking,” the Committee heard.
Chairperson Senate County Public Accounts Committee Senator Moses Kajwang' during a session at the Bunge Tower, Nairobi.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
Senator Kajwang urged Governor Kihika to urgently resolve the glaring issues, warning that failure to do so was a recipe for failure.
“You have serious inadequacies when it comes to human resources, you have no CPSB, serious inadequacies in financial management because you have no chief of finance nor a qualified accountant heading your treasury,” stated the committee chair.
“You do not have an audit committee, and you have no approved internal audit charter, which renders your internal auditors ineffective. You also have gaps in legal.”
“How do you expect to achieve your goals, Governor, in the absence of these critical structures?”
The auditor general’s report revealed that Nakuru county is barely surviving on minimal revenue while choking under a ballooning wage bill (40 percent) and at the same time missing out on at least Sh7.8 billion stuck in incomplete projects.
Upon scrutiny, the committee found that the county’s own source revenue plummeted further, suggesting that” Nakuru City does not have demonstrable capacity to generate sufficient revenue to sustain its operations in line with Section 5(1)(c) of the Cities and Urban Areas Act.”
Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang'.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
Senator Kajwang, who chaired the Devolution Committee that spearheaded Nakuru’s elevation into a city in 2021, expressed fears over its readiness and future sustainability if the situation is not arrested in time.
The revenue statements indicated that the total revenue collected in Nakuru county would range between Sh3billion and Sh3.3billion.
This included Sh1.5 billion as hospital fees, which have since been ring-fenced as the Facility Improvement Fund (FIF), meaning Nakuru Municipality was left with just Sh1.8 billion to run its operations.
“Looking at your receiver of revenue statements, even though I have no regrets for being the chair who brought the report to the house, I am a bit worried for Nakuru as a city,” stated the Senator.
“Part of the criteria was to check if the municipality had the capacity to collect its own revenue that could sustain services. Are you able to deliver services to Nakuru City with Sh1.8 billion, Definitely not,” posed Senator Kajwang.
“And remember this 1.8billion is collected from all corners of Nakuru, not just the city.”
Senate Deputy Minority Leader Enock Wambua (right) and his colleagues during a House committee meeting on March 24, 2023.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Kitui senator Enock Wambua took issue with non-action on the three accounting officers who had been linked to blatant misclassification of expenditure flagged by the auditor general.
This included Sh5.8 million wrongly classified as foreign, Sh25 million misclassified under office furniture purchase, and Sh15.9 million wrongly classified as repairs and maintenance.
“The Treasury takes notice that there is an aspect of incompetence on the part of officers handling these documents. Someone is unable to know which item to charge.
“With a training expenditure of Sh93 million, maybe the county is training the wrong personnel or they require further training to know what to charge,” stated the Treasury officer.
Regarding the huge legal expenses and outsourcing legal services, Governor Kihika attributed it to the numerous suits against the county government, especially on land matters, vowing to put a stop to the historic land-grabbing nightmare in the county.
