Governor Lusaka Flagged For Managing 352 Bank Accounts For Bungoma County
Bungoma County, led by Ken Lusaka, has been accused of illegally operating hundreds of bank accounts.
This was discovered by Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o in the County Governments Budget Implementation Review Report for the first nine months of FY 2023/24.
According to Nyakang’o, the county maintained 352 accounts at various local banks during the period under consideration.
Bungoma County has approximately 12 different banks, which means that the County Government has an average of 30 accounts in each bank in the area.
“The County government operated a total of 352 accounts with commercial banks,” Nyakang’o noted in her report.
“This is contrary to Regulations 82(1)(b) of the PFM (County Governments) Regulations, 2015, which requires that County government bank accounts be opened and maintained at the Central Bank of Kenya.”
According to the Office of the Controller of the Budget, the only time a county government can have a different account is for the imprest bank account for petty cash.
A county government is also permitted to maintain a local bank account for revenue collection and expenditure.
Bungoma County continues to expand its bank account base. The county had 321 bank accounts, according to a March 2024 report from the budget controller.
This means that in less than a month, the County Government opened an additional 31 bank accounts.
An examination of the opened back accounts revealed that they are for vocational training centers (152), health facilities and dispensaries (146), local revenue accounts (4), level 4 and 5 hospitals (21) and funds accounts.
It was unclear why the governor had more bank accounts than schools and hospitals in the region.
“The County Government should ensure that bank accounts are opened and operated at the Central Bank of Kenya as the law requires. However, imprest bank accounts for petty cash and revenue collection accounts are exempted,” the report advised.
Governor Lusaka Flagged For Managing 352 Bank Accounts For Bungoma County
