Mombasa County Governor Hassan Joho before a Senate Committee to answer questions on the Auditor General’s report.
Joho appeared before the County Public Accounts and Investments Committee chaired by Migori Senator, Ochilo Ayacko to shed light on audit queries originating from the Auditor General’s report.
The county boss is among other governors who were invited by the senate committee to explain how taxpayers funds were spent amid disclosures of massive public looting.
Senate invited the governors to answer questions raised by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu on their county’s expenditure during the 2018/2019 financial year.
County assemblies were also summoned to also explain their expenditure for financial years 2014/2015, 2015/2016, 2016/2017, 2017/2018 and 2018/2019.
“The Senate County Public Accounts and Investments Committee hereby informs the Chief Executives of the entities listed in the Schedule below of the sittings of the Committee scheduled in the months of June, July, August, September, October and November 2021 and invites them to appear before the Committee on the respective dates listed,” a notice published by Senate Clerk Jeremiah Nyegenye read in part.
“The committee will not accept management responses that will be availed to the committee and the Auditor-General’s office outside of the set timelines,” it continued.
In 2019, Joho was asked to explain pending bills to a tune of Ksh3.7 billion by his county. The AG also wanted to know why some of the amounts of money collected by the county government was being spent at the source.
For the Financial year 2017-2018, the Auditor General stated that Joho’s administration had Kshh3.7 billion as total pending bills, but only submitted a figure of Ksh5.3 billion.
In 2018, Auditor General Robert Ouko admonished the Mombasa County Assembly over the expenditure of Ksh548million it was allocated.
Last year an audit report on the Ksh2.4 billion transferred by the Office of the Attorney General to 11 of its departments revealed Ksh572 million of taxpayer’s money was lost.
According to the AG, five of the eleven institutions reported that they did not receive their full allocations, putting the Office of the Attorney General on the spot. The financial statements from the five institutions showed a deficit of Ksh572 million.
- By Fred Azelwa.