According to a report by the Auditor General, Mr Kinyanjui approved irregular payments in allowances to MCAs during the financial year 2019/202. The expenditures of Ksh. 8,357,854, Ksh.4, 620,342, Ksh. 1,461,600, Ksh. 1,083,328 and Ksh.1, 192,584 were approved by the County Executive on foreign training expenses for MCAs through the Departments of Finance and Economic Planning, Public Service Management, Infrastructure and Office of the Governor respectively
Former Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui could find himself in hot soup after reports emerged that he used county funds to pay Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) to avoid a power struggle in his administration. Mr Kinyanjui served for one term before he was ousted by Governor Susan Kihika, he never had issues with the MCAs during his five-year tenure.
Today The Weekly Vision reveals the trick he used to contain the MCAs. According to a report by the Auditor General, Mr Kinyanjui approved irregular payments in allowances to MCAs during the financial year 2019/202. The expenditures of Ksh. 8,357,854, Ksh.4, 620,342, Ksh. 1,461,600, Ksh. 1,083,328 and Ksh.1, 192,584 were approved by the County Executive on foreign training expenses for MCAs through the Departments of Finance and Economic Planning, Public Service Management, Infrastructure and Office of the Governor respectively.
It was however not clear why the expenses of the County Assembly of Nakuru were being paid for by the County Executive contrary to Regulation 42(1) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012. Consequently, the validity of the expenditure of Ksh. 8,357,854 on MCAs could not be confirmed. The report further reveals that the County Executive transferred Ksh. 1,168,608,398 to the County Assembly. This was more than the stipulated 7% of total county revenue for the year under review by Ksh. 119,548,402. This was contrary to Regulation 25(1)(f) of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015 which provides that the approved expenditures of a County Assembly shall not exceed seven per cent of the total revenues of the County government or twice the personnel emoluments of that County Assembly, whichever is lower. Consequently, the County Executive was in breach of the law.
The report further reveals that the County made payments of Ksh.41, 709,019 in respect of legal fees. However, the county executive did not provide approvals from the County Attorney for the engagement of the private law firms. This was contrary to Section 16 of the Nakuru County Attorney Act, 2017.
Further, it was observed that the payments were not supported by the requisite documents such as contract agreements, fee notes and evidence of court sessions attendance, rates applied in line with the advocate remuneration roll and a case file for each of the cases.
Because of the above, the report says, the validity of the expenditure of Ksh.41,709,019 on legal fees for the year ended 30th June 2020, could not be confirmed.
