Auditor General, Edward Ouko has cleared Kiambu Governor, Ferdinand Waititu and 10 other Counties that had been put on the spot over ridiculous budgeting.
Speaking during the launch of the 2018 Cyber Security Report by cyber firm, Ouko stated that the concerns raised by the senate committee were an issue of 'bad reporting' and not an issue of corruption as had earlier been speculated.
“It is just an issue of bad reporting or the information was slotted into a template which was not customised for that particular reporting of the county budget, so you end up with some budget heads from a template of the national government budget. It is not an issue of whether the counties spent money on those items, no,” Ouko stated.
“I think you have systems of accounting and then there is subsidiary reporting which is supposed to be done on the budget separately and meant to go to the County Assembly and this was really intended by the Treasury to allow the counties once they have the accounts, they align the budget heads,” he stated.
Other Counties that had been exposed by the Auditor-General's report are; Kirinyaga, Kakamega, Kitui, Nyeri, Laikipia, Kwale, Nyamira, Samburu, Garissa and Lamu.
Some of the Governors in the respective Counties had defended themselves stating that they did not spend money for functions that were not under their jurisdictions.
Kirinyaga Governor, Ann Waiguru for instance demanded a public apology from the National Treasury over reports that her county spent money on 'State House affairs' in the 2017-2018 financial year.
"I wish to categorically state that these claims are obviously untrue, unfounded, and intended to grossly mislead the public," she noted in a press release.
