The County Government of Embu has been ordered to recover Sh10.1 million from the officer who unlawfully authorised the withdrawal from the County Industrial and Aggregation Park (CAIP) account.
The County Assembly Public Accounts Committee directed the County Executive Committee Member (CECM) in charge of Finance Prof. Joe Kamaria, to also furnish the assembly with evidence of recovery within 90 days, failure to which he will be surcharged.
The report by the PAC was unanimously adopted by the whole assembly following findings that the money borrowed from the special purpose account was not refunded.
The committee further observed that no supporting documents were provided to it to demonstrate how the money was spent yet there was no budgetary provision for the expenditure.
Further observation indicated that the expenditure was not regularised in accordance with the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act, which requires that all public resources be used in a lawful, authorised and acceptable manner.
The issue of the expenditure came to the limelight two months ago after Governor Cecily Mbarire was grilled by the Senate Public Accounts Committee for diverting the said money towards a boda boda event.
The revelation led to protests from a section of riders in Embu Town who distanced themselves from the alleged usage, saying they were not party to or in the know of the expenditure.
They asked the Governor not to drag them into her mess, claiming that they have never benefitted from anything from her administration since she took over as governor three years ago.
They sought to clarify that the Sh10 million they know of was raised through contributions during a dinner they had organized to plan for a summit held in January last year to raise funds to start own Sacco where the governor was the chief guest and gave Sh1 million contribution
In defence, the County Government maintained that no money had been misappropriated, saying the money was reallocated to facilitate the event to take care of the welfare of the riders.
Youth, Gender and Sports CECM Jane Waroga said the funds in questions were lawfully accessed, properly applied and fully accounted for.
‘No funds were lost, misappropriated or diverted,’ Ms Waroga maintained, adding that the action was taken strictly in adherence with the provisions of the PFM Act that allow temporary internal reallocation of funds.
By Samuel Waititu
