Bungoma County under the leadership of Ken Lusaka has been flagged for operating hundreds of bank accounts contrary to the law.
This was unearthed by the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o through County Governments Budget Implementation Review Report for the first 9 months of FY 2023/24.
According to Nyakang’o, the county operated 352 accounts at various local banks during the period under review.
The whole of Bungoma County had around 12 different banks meaning the County Government has an average of 30 accounts in every bank in the area.
“The County government operated a total of 352 accounts with commercial banks,” Nyakang’o noted in her report.
“This is contrary to Regulations 82(1)(b) of the PFM (County Governments) Regulations, 2015, which requires that County government bank accounts be opened and maintained at the Central Bank of Kenya.”
According to the Office of the Controller of the Budget, the only time a county government is allowed to have a different account is for imprest bank account for petty cash.
A county government is also given leeway to operate a local bank account for revenue collection and expenditure.
The number of bank accounts operated by Bungoma County keeps rising. A March 2024, report by the controller of the budget showed that the county had 321 bank accounts.
This means in less than a month, the County Government opened an extra 31 bank accounts.
Analysis of the opened back accounts showed that they are for vocational training centres (152), health facilities and dispensaries (146), local revenue accounts (4), level 4 and 5 hospitals (21) and funds accounts (29).
It was not clear why the governor was operating more bank accounts than schools and hospitals in the region.
“The County Government should ensure that bank accounts are opened and operated at the Central Bank of Kenya as the law requires. However, imprest bank accounts for petty cash and revenue collection accounts are exempted,” the report advised.
