New details have emerged on how accountants at the Nairobi County Treasury sent Ksh357 Million to a wrong account.
In a statement to newsrooms, the County Chief Finance Officer Ekaya Alumasi Ghonzour stated that the money was not lost and had been mistakenly sent to the wrong account namely the Nairobi City Council/ the University of Maryland which was an account for donor-funded projects, managed by Nairobi City Council Health Services and the Univesity of Maryland.
The Bursary fund account was opened pursuant to Nairobi City County Bursary Regulations of 2014.
"On 24th April 2018 and 28th March 2018, the County Treasury opened two accounts, namely Nairobi City County Bursary Fund Account Number 01141232396612 and 01141232396611 respectively with a local bank.
[caption caption="Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko"]
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"Given that both accounts were opened more or less at the same time, and because when processing payments (Invoicing) via the integrated Financial Information Management System (IFMIS) only the payee appears on the workbench screen (in this case, Nairobi City County Government), the accountants preparing the payments erroneously picked the Health donor fund account, instead of the bursary account," Ghonzour explained.
He added that once a payment had been invoiced in IFMIS, neither the validator nor the first and second approver could see the bank account number that the funds were being transferred to.
"It was thus not possible to know at this time that the funds had been transferred to the wrong Nairobi City County account," he stated.
The Chief Financial Officer concluded by conveying that: "The funds were transferred from Nairobi City County Revenue Account at Central Bank of Kenya on 21st May 2018 to Nairobi City Council/ University of Maryland Health Services Account.
"We confirm that accounts belong to Nairobi City Council Government, they differ by only one digit and that, just like any other government accounts, they don't earn any interest."
Members of the county assembly have been up in arms demanding answers as to who deposited the Ksh297 million for the city wards bursary fund to a bank account opened by an Australian University.
[caption caption="Statement from County Treasury"]
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