Kiambu governor Ferdinand Waititu can now heave a sigh of relief after the National Treasury vindicated him over ‘abnormal expenditures’ in the county.
And it is not only Baba Yao who got the relief as it emerged that counties failed to use the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) correctly as required by law, hence the audit confusion.
In a statement this week, Treasury Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge said there might have been a mix-up in the budget, revenue and expenditure reporting.
“The county financial statements by votes and economic items in IFMIS reflect the correct information as budgeted by counties. However, we note that a number of counties do not pay attention to the budget by programmes as required by the law,” said Thugge.
Counties were supposed to fill in their budgets and expenditures on the IFMIS tab – ‘GOK IFMIS budget execution by programmes and sub-programmes -County’.
According to officials from the Council of Governors (GoG), the affected counties used ‘wrong templates’ to report in the Ifmis.
The Council of Governors, Controller of Budget and officials from the Auditor General’s office resolved to form a multi-stakeholder technical committee to conduct an investigation and submit a report in 14 days.
It will be chaired by the Controller of Budget and comprise the CoG, Treasury and Auditor General.
The Senate Public Accounts and Investments Committee has in the meantime been asked to suspend appearance by governors over the 2017/18 audit queries.
