Senior Nyeri County government officials have been summoned by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) in an inquiry over Sh9.86 million fuel expenditure.
Senate watchdog committee has asked the EACC to investigate the county's suspicious expenditure.
The amount was paid to various firms for the supply of fuel. Among these firms, Mountainside Petrol Station was paid a total of Sh6.89 million allegedly without proper documentation.
The revelation was made during a Senate County Public Accounts Committee meeting on Tuesday where the county government is on the spot over questionable expenditure without work tickets and fuel registers.
According to a report by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu for the financial year ending June 30, 2022, the fuel consumption could not be traced to fuel statements, fuel registers and motor vehicle work tickets.
Moreover, the motor vehicle work tickets lacked key details such as receipts and detailed order numbers for the supplied fuel.
Appearing before the committee chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’, Governor Mutahi Kahiga was a pains to show proof that the amount was not spent on fueling private vehicles or matatus owned by county officers and charging the county government.
“Out of the Sh9.86 million, Sh6.89 million was paid to one petrol station called Mountainside. Is it possible to know if it was county vehicle A, B or C that fueled on this date and fueled this amount?” Mr Kajwang’ posed.
The committee called on the anti-graft agency to commence investigations into the issue and if the expenditure cannot be justified, then there should be a surcharge and prosecution because the matter constitutes violation of the Public Finance Management Act.
“It is unfortunate that you (governor) cannot explain the expenditure. It is such small leaks that sink a boat and EACC should be seized of the matter and find culpable officers who must be punished in accordance with the law,” said the senator.
“This money must be accounted for or recovered and people must be punished in accordance with the law. This is money that can build at least nine ECDE classrooms in Nyeri,” he added.
On his part, Governor Kahiga agreed with the auditors that the amount was spent on fuel without proper supporting documents.
“We admit negligence on our part because you don’t just walk into a petrol station and fuel a vehicle without a local purchase order after which the entry should be done in the work ticket and fuel register to enable them balance their accounts,” said Mr Kahiga.
“It is unfortunate that this has not been properly done and we stand guilty as charged," he said.
The governor had initially told the committee that they have the documents only that they were unable to produce the same during the audit.
“If it did not exist at the time of the audit then it has been cooked. You told us you have a hands-on approach. I am sure if the records existed at the time of the audit you will have insisted they be provided,” said Mr Kajwang’.
Nominated Senator Mariam Omar said the committee cannot accept accounting documents not provided during the time of audit.
“We don’t do audits here. It is the auditors to go through the documents and make a conclusion. Curiously, the same issue is recurring in the following financial year,” said Ms Omar.
He pointed out that his administration has designated transport officers in every department to control fuel consumption using registers and detailed orders.
The end game, he said, is that any fuel drawn from the accounts must be approved and updated in the relevant accounting documents.
“To address this, accounting officers have been sensitised to ensure fuel consumed or purchased is recorded in fuel register, detail orders to be used when vehicles are being fueled and the amounts consumed to be entered in respective vehicle work tickets,” said Mr Kahiga.
Earlier, the committee had raised questions over the audit report, saying the auditor questioning the use of only Sh7 million, where Sh3.5 million was later supported, against a budget of Sh7 billion was not a fair representation of the situation in Nyeri County.
“Are you telling Nyeri residents that the billions sent to their county has been lawfully and effectively utilised except for Sh3.5 million?” posed Mr Kajwang’.
However, upon deep interrogation of the report for the financial year ended June 30, 2022, damning financial misappropriations began to emerge.
