9.1 Kiambu County audit report excerpts, 2013

BOX 9.1

Kiambu County audit report excerpts, 2013

Bank Accounts: Closure and Transfer of Bank Accounts The defunct Local Authorities did not close their bank accounts as of 28 February 2013 as had been directed by the Transition Authority guidelines (TA 2013a). The defunct Local Authorities continued operating most of the accounts up to 2 July 2013 contrary to the directive by the Transition Authority. The total amount transferred from the eight (8) defunct Local Authorities to the County Government operations account was K Sh 281,567,386.

Assets Status Debtors Transition Authority Circular Ref. no. TA/2/5 dated 9 January 2013 (TA 2013b), required the Clerks of the Local Authorities to carry out an inventory of all assets, debts and liabilities including movable and immovable assets. All the eight (8) defunct Local Authorities did not maintain individual debtors’ ledgers. It was therefore not possible to confirm the completeness and accuracy of the balances provided. Further, there was no evidence in the form of confirmations or correspondences to support the debtor’s balance of K Sh 1,733,010,336 transferred from the defunct Local Authorities, out of which K Sh 1,463,562,822 (84.45 percent) relates to Thika Municipal Council. In addition, two (2) defunct Local Authorities had long outstanding Imprest totaling K Sh 3,276,109. Further, the debtors’ balances were not consolidated at the County Head Office. Individual debtors’ ledgers should have been maintained and the long outstanding Imprest recovered from the staff through their payrolls. Debtors to be transferred to the County Government should be verified and consolidated in the County Government books after confirming their correctness.

Immovable Assets A fixed asset register was not maintained and five hundred and ninety-three (593) parcels of land of undetermined value as shown below and within the jurisdiction of the County Government did not have title deeds.

Movable Assets During the period under review, the County procured 9 motor vehicles for its County Executive Officers at K Sh 47,700,999. These vehicles were, however, fitted with private number plates instead of green number plates.

Creditors and Other Liabilities The defunct Local Authorities did not maintain individual Creditors ledgers. Although balances of liabilities were given in respect of [Local Authorities Pension Trust of National Social Security Fund], payment in lieu of leave, suppliers and contractors and pending bills, it was not possible to confirm the completeness and accuracy of the same.

Source: OAG 2013.

There were several challenges associated with the move from defunct local authorities to the county governments. First, defunct local authorities did not have debtors’ registers or updated debtors’ records. Second, the creditors’ ledgers lacked relevant supporting documents to authenticate the amounts that were claimed. Lastly, the defunct local authorities did not have fixed-asset registers, so there was no information to ascertain what assets the outgoing entities were supposed to hand over to the incoming county government in March 2013. Thus, it was an unfunded mandate for the incoming county government to establish a fixed-asset register during transition and in a few months’ time between March 27 and June 30, 2013. They could have done more