In Summary;
- Funds plundered via imprest in all departments
- Bills of quantities raised had no specifications on the dimensions and the extent of works to be done
- Accumulated unsurrendered imprests per department
- Downloadable REPORT OF THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE
The PAC report has been tabled in the County Assembly of Bungoma this afternoon. Here are extracts…
REPORT OF THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE ON THE AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT OF THE COUNTY EXECUTIVE OF BUNGOMA FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30TH JUNE 2018
4.0 COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
The committee as currently constituted comprises of the following members;
1. Hon. Charles Nangulu Chairperson
2. Hon. Bethwell Mwambu Vice Chairperson
3. Hon. Tony Barasa Member
4. Hon. Erick Wapang’ana Member
5. Hon. Everlyne Mutiembu Member
6. Hon. Martin Pepela Member
7. Hon. EllyTindi Member
8. Hon. Metrine Nangalama Member
9. Hon. Joseph Magudah Member
10. Hon. BusoloSudi Member
11. Hon. Winnie Nyambok Member
OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL
1. Mr. Gideon Tom Isiaha
- THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SANITATION
Committee Recommendations The committee recommends that:
- The accounting officer, County Treasury in liaison with all the accounting officers incharge of various county Government entities must make demonstrable efforts in ensuring that all imprest and AIE Holders act in strict compliance with the requirements of part viii, more particularly Regulations 92 &93 of the PFM (County Government) Regulations, 2015.
- In future, before issuing imprests, the accounting officers should ensure that the applicant has no outstanding imprest.
- An appropriate disciplinary action be taken against all those officers concerned for the abuse of imprest as per the provisions of Regulation 93(10) of the PFM (County Government) Regulations, 2015 as read together with section 156 of the PFM Act, 2012. A comprehensive compliance report be prepared and submitted to the County Assembly within (60) days from the date of adoption of this report.
- In this regard, the Committee recommends that the responsible Chief Officer be reprimanded for failure to manage imprests and ensuring that all outstanding imprests due are surrendered and/or accounted for in time and that there is total compliance with the law more particularly, the regulations governing imprest management transactions.
- As for imprests relating to Donor funds, the committee hereby directs that the respective accounting officers should ensure that the same are surrendered or accounted for immediately after the end of an activity and in the event of late surrenders, imprest holders must always provide a written justification for the same
DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM, WATER, ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Committee observations
Despite the Accounting Officer Submission citing repetition of an imprest totaling to Ksh 132,000, the committee observed otherwise since the dates of issuance vary from the imprest numbers.
The Committee confirmed that the imprests warrant totaling to Kshs. 625,800 belonged to the Department of Agriculture as per the elaborate response.
Committee recommendation
There was no repetition of the imprests totaling to Kshs. 132,000 and thus the query remains material. In this regard, the committee directs the appointing authority to reprimand the accounting officer for failure to ensure timely surrender of all outstanding imprests that are due and for failure to ensure that, there is strict adherence to the law more particularly the PFM Act and the regulations governing imprest management.
…. The accounting officer, Mr. Benson Barasa who doubles up in the Governor’s office and Public Administration department submitted that there was an outstanding imprests amounting to KShs.50, 890,875 in Public Administration, Ksh.39, 091,544 in Governor’s Office and ksh.5,348,748 in the office of the County Secretary as at 30th June, 2018. The imprests have since been surrendered in full through normal surrender process and or recovery through attachment of imprests holders’ accounts as per the attached correspondences….
- GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
Committee Recommendation The County Government of Bungoma should expedite the payment of all authentic pending Bills as ascertained by the Committee on pending Bills in compliance with the President’s Committee Recommendation The County Government of Bungoma should expedite the payment of all authentic pending Bills as ascertained by the Committee on pending Bills in compliance with the President’s directive so as to ensure continuous Ex-chequer releases to cater for the County government operations without delays. Long Outstanding Imprests The accounts receivables balance of Kshs.203,180,108 includes long outstanding imprest figure of Kshs.125,250,064, held by staff for up to six (6) months after their due dates had lapsed, contrary to provisions of Section 93 (5) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 – Regulations 2015 in regards to imprest management . Further, Management has not explained measures it has taken to recover the amounts as required by Regulation 93 (6) of the same Regulations. Consequently, it was not possible to confirm the accuracy and validity of the outstanding imprests figure of Kshs.203, 180,108 as at 30 June 2018 Accounting Officer Submission The accounting officer, Mr. Benson Barasa who doubles up in the Governor’s office and Public Administration department submitted that there was an outstanding imprests amounting to KShs.50, 890,875 in Public Administration, Ksh.39, 091,544 in Governor’s Office and ksh.5, 348,748 in the office of the County Secretary as at 30th June, 2018. The imprests have since been surrendered in full through normal surrender process and or recovery through attachment of imprests holders’ accounts as per the attached correspondences. Committee Observations The Committee made the following observations:
Download PAC report here: PAC REPORT 2018 (EXECUTIVE)-3
- Huge sums of Imprests amounting to Kshs. 3,000,000 were issued to officers without a specific purpose, contrary to Regulation 93 (1) of the Public Finance Management (County Government) Regulations, 2015.
- There were instances where imprest was issued to officers without personal numbers which is contrary to the requirements of section 152 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012.
- Imprests were repeatedly issued to officers who had initially failed to surrender outstanding imprests
- There was abuse and or violation of Regulation 93 of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015 in regard to the management of imprest transactions since huge amounts of imprests were issued a day to or on the very last day of the financial year to officers with no specific purpose.
Committee Recommendations
From the above observations, the Committee recommends as follows:
A Lifestyle Audit on officers serving in the Office of the Governor who were issued with suspicious imprests given a day to or on the last day towards the end of the financial year without specifying the purpose of the imprests be undertaken by EACC with a view to taking an appropriate legal action against those found culpable.
- The Accounting Officer in the responsible Office should ensure that all the requisite provisions of the law in regard to Imprests Management as envisaged in Regulations 91, 92, 93 and 94 of the Public Finance Management (County Government) Regulations 2015 and section 152 of the PFM Act,2012 are complied with at all times.
An outstanding 125,250,064 imprest prompts PAC to recommend a Lifestyle Audit on officers serving in the Office of the Governor
READ MORE ON THE ATTACHED (downloadable) PDF file below
Download PAC report here: PAC REPORT 2018 (EXECUTIVE)-3
