Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has piled pressure on several counties to dispose off unserviceable and grounded vehicles which she stated were contributing to devolved units losing funds.
In the County Governments County Executive 2022/2023 report, Gathungu revealed that holding these grounded vehicles was contrary to Regulation 132(2) of Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations 2015.
These vehicles can be disposed of through a public auction announced by the different counties.
Per the report, the counties listed as having unserviceable and grounded vehicles include; Wajir (34), Kilifi (164), Marsabit (103), Embu (144), Nyandarua (47), West Pokot (51), Samburu (6), and Bungoma (218).
Others are; Migori with 60 vehicles. Kisii with 63 cars, Nyamira with 56 and Nairobi with 240 grounded vehicles.
On Nairobi, the Auditor General stated that after inspection, several issues were raised including the county's failure to provide an updated list of current grounded vehicles. She also noted poor maintenance and storage of the assets which has resulted in deterioration.
Further, Gathungu noted that the grounded and unserviceable vehicles had been vandalised with some parts missing.
"Management did not have an annual disposal plan contrary to Regulation 176(1) of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Regulations, 2020 requires an accounting officer of a procuring entity to ensure that an annual assets disposal plan is prepared of items declared as unserviceable, surplus or obsolete, obsolescence stores, asset or equipment," read part of the report.
According to the Auditor General, after inspecting fleet management records from Marsabit County, it was discovered that the administration had not taken any steps to dispose the vehicles off to prevent further loss.
Also, it was revealed the motor vehicles were not managed centrally by the transport officer, the vehicles did not have tracking system devices and did not have speed limit governors.
Similarly, Gathungu pointed out that Marsabit County did not provide all the motor vehicle registration records during the audit.
On the other hand, in Embu, the grounded vehicles were scattered in several yards and hospitals across the county and no records were provided to show plans to dispose them off.
Gathungu noted that an unknown number of motorbikes were also grounded but no details of the registration numbers were provided.
The AOG remarked that West Pokot County did not explain why no plans to dispose of the vehicles had been initiated despite the assets losing value due to the wear and tear at the storage stores.
Bungoma County, on the other hand, failed to provide ownership documents of the grounded motor vehicles.
