Busia County Government has denied the Senate’s Claims of financial impropriety and vowed to defend Governor Sospeter Ojaamong. “Documents will speak by themselves. We were given a clean bill of health by the same committee. We are wondering the forces behind the latest machinations to tarnish the name of our hard working Governor,” County Executive Committee for Finance and ICT Leonard Obimbira said.
Addressing the press at the Busia County Government’s Boardroom, Obimbira said it is not true that the County Government failed to account for Sh352million in the 2013/2014 financial year.
“We concur with the auditor’s observation that the certificate of bank balances in respect to account no, 1000171138 was not availed at the time of the audit and the balances of Sh45m as at 30th June 2014.
However, an amount of Sh307million was disbursed on 3/7/2014 by the National Treasury which is not in the financial year in question but we were advised by the National Treasury to consider the amount as part of receipts in the FY 2013/2014,” he said.
He said Sh457, 000 was paid to the County Staff as Per Diems and Transport in preparation of annual financial statements. “This was necessitated since it was done away from Busia County Headquarters.”
The Senate had also queried Sh6.3m being liabilities for the defunct Local authorities. He said the County paid Sh3m to Kenya Revenue Authority as per demand notices to the County to settle the same and Sh3.3m to casual labourers as outstanding statutory deductions and wage arrears respectively.
Regarding Sh7m paid towards tree planting projects, Obimbira said the omission of recording the same had since been corrected on the receipts side of the cashbook.
On Sh16m paid to Kenya Inter-counties sports and cultural association games, Obimbira said at the time of the audit the timetable and schedules were not provided but were provided for auditor’s verification during the management responds report.
Regarding the annual payments the County remits to Council of Governors, Obimbira said the COG is a legal entity formed under section 19 of the 2010 constitution. He said COG represents the second tier of government at Inter-Government Budget and Economic Committee. They also represent counties in the Senate.
