Members of Parliament have raised concern over Ksh500 million that was paid to police officers who took part in the national census exercise in 2019.
In a report tabled before the National Assembly Public Investment Committee (PIC) by the Auditor General, it was revealed that the Kenya National Bureau and Statistics (KNBS) made the payments to the National Police Service (NPS) for the provision of security.
It was also revealed that a total of 109,700 police officers were engaged during the 8-day exercise that began on August 24 to August 31, 2019.
In her report, Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu stated that KNBS did not account for the expenditure of the funds. She added that there was no evidence to explain how the money was distributed among the 109,700 officers.
“There were no daily attendance registers to authenticate the identity of officers that rendered the services at various locations as proof of participation and hence the justification for payment,” she stated.
While appearing before the committee led by Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir, KNBS Director-General Macdonald Obudho stated that the money was meant to cater for the officers' allowances.
Additionally, Obudho revealed that they were yet to receive a report from NPS regarding how the money was spent.
“The KNBS wrote two letters in February and October 2021 to the Inspector General requesting for details of security officer deployed and paid.
“We also sought for the expenditure of Sh7.7 million paid to non-security personnel but a response of IG is yet to be provided to us. We have not received any communication from IG,” he stated.
According to the audit reports, KNBS spent Ksh10.8 billion on census, which is done after every 10 years.
The grilling by the MPs barely come days after it was reported that the state agency made payments of Ksh 163 million for an office space that was not occupied.
“As a result of a lease agreement that was skewed in favour of the landlord, the bureau paid rent for the period between October 2017 to June 2019 of Sh163,083,000 while the building remained unoccupied with no value for money achieved, hence misuse of public resources,” the AG stated.
