The Senate Committee on Public Accounts and Investment has recommended for legislation to guide how the counties should fund the Council of Governors (COG).
The Senators made the recommendations after Kirinyaga Governor Mumbi Waiguru who was responding to an audit query cited that the council is not adequately funded and since it supports county government operations, the counties had agreed to complement the council’s funding.
She said that counties transfer funds to COG based on agreed annual subscription amounts which are acknowledged and accordingly accounted for by the by the Council’s secretariat. She urged the committee to come up with a law that will guide such funding in order to prevent counties from having audit queries in future.
The senate committee noted that legislation of COG funding needed to be captured in the BBI report and said they will look into ways of having it included.
On internal queries about the use of funds in procurement of furniture and roads equipment, the auditor general’s office cleared the county government saying that were now satisfied by the submissions given in the Governor’s responses. The senators however urged the finance department to always submit documents at the time of audit in order to save time of appearing in the committee.
Regarding an audit query on Fixed Assets Register, the governor said that her office had already fully updated the register, a fact that was confirmed by the office of the auditor general.
About inclusion of some parcels of land in the county’s asset register, the governor clarified that the parcels that have not been entered included the ones that still have pending court cases and may not be entered until such cases were successfully concluded in favor of the County Government.
The senate committee noted that audit reports should not raise obviously unnecessary issues and the same time encouraged the county executive to ensure that they shared information in a timely manner.
Waiguru also told the senate that the county’s health sector is undergoing full automation of its information management system that will enhance service delivery and management of medical supplies. She added that automation of revenue collection system is also underway which will go a long way in solving some of the challenges likely to raise audit queries.
By The Mountain Journal Crew in Kirinyaga
