Baringo Governor Given 21-Day Ultimatum After ‘Lazy Responses’ To Ksh792 Million Expenditure
On Monday, Baringo Governor Benjamin Cheboi was chastised for his ‘lazy’ responses to the Auditor General’s reports.
While testifying before the Senate’s County Public Accounts Committee, Cheboi was unable to satisfactorily address concerns about how Ksh792 million was spent.
The Governor had appeared before the Committee to respond to audit queries regarding the county Executive’s financial statements for the fiscal years 2020/21 and 2021/22.
According to the committee, the governor’s documents did not support the expenditure of Ksh792 million.
This led the Senators to conclude that the money had been stolen or misappropriated.
Furthermore, the governor, who is affiliated with the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), was called out for failing to provide documents to support the county balance, which is estimated to be Ksh2.3 billion.
The committee, led by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang, was disappointed with the responses and gave him 21 days to submit refined reactions to the Auditor General’s Office on the issues raised.
“The documents you have annexed do not make sense. This is because of the laziness of your responses that do not discuss the issues. You have failed to prove that the funds allocated to Baringo County Executive in the two financial years were put to good use,” the chairman remarked,
Aside from the amount mentioned, the committee questioned the county budget, which was approved by the County Assembly.
According to the Senators, the assembly approved a budget of Ksh7.9 billion, but the funds were reduced by Ksh7.8 billion.
The governor explained that this was due to a failure to complete the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) auto-reconciliation.
“We have since identified staff to be trained and liaised with the National Treasury to capacity build the identified staff,” he stated.
Cheboi also acknowledged his mistakes with the responses he provided.
He assured the committee that he would take appropriate action and deal with the officers responsible for preparing the financial statements if supporting documents were not submitted.
“It’s negligence on their part but I can assure this committee no money was lost. I will personally work with the auditor general to ensure that we resolve these issues,” he added.
Senator Kajwang requested that the governor submits to the Auditor General, or the committee would be forced to request that the National Treasury stop disbursing funds to the county.
Baringo Governor Given 21-Day Ultimatum After ‘Lazy Responses’ To Ksh792 Million Expenditure
