Auditor General reveals counties operating more than 200 bank accounts (LIST)
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Auditor General raises concern over the counties operating 200 - 300 bank accounts.
Auditor General raises concern over the counties operating 200 – 300 bank accounts.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has raised an alarm over the number of bank accounts being operated by county governments.
While appearing before the Senate County Public Investment and Special Funds Committee on Wednesday, September 4, Gathungu revealed that some counties are using over 200 bank accounts for transactions.
The Auditor General noted that counties should operate at most ten bank accounts for their transactions adding that having many accounts will result in losing track of the money.
“We should minimize bank accounts. We should have one or two revenue or expenditure accounts. We don’t need 300. First of all, you lose track, you put money there and forget that there is money there,” said Gathungu.
She added, “I cannot say one or two are enough, it will depend on the situation but more than ten are too much. So, 200 or 300 does not make sense to me.”
According to the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o’s report on the expenditure by counties between June 2023 and January 2024, she revealed that Bungoma had the highest number of accounts with 352.
Baringo, Migori, and Nyandarua followed with 304, 208 and 86 respectively.
Gathungu also observed that there is a duplication of bank accounts which is a gateway of mismanagement of funds.
For instance, the Auditor General said a county can have a fund for agriculture yet there already exists an agriculture department.
“The law gives counties a blank cheque on the number of funds they can establish. Sooner or later, we will have more funds in this country that are running operations of departments for counties. So, you have a fund for agriculture and a department for agriculture. Then you have duplication of funds at the national level ad at the county level,” Gathungu added.
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The Auditor General further told the Senate that some of those bank accounts are allocated millions of shillings and purport to pay for services under the national government’s purview.
“You find a county has established a huge account for high school bursary, but high school education is under the national government,” she said.
“Are you then telling us to amend the PFM Act to issue controls on the establishment of funds accounts?” Narok senator Ledama Ole Kina asked.
The Auditor General also raised issues on the own-source revenue by counties as another avenue for the theft of public funds. Some counties are said to be under-declaring their revenue collections or targets.
In the latest Controller of Budget report, Kericho, Nyandarua, Machakos, and Lamu counties were listed as counties that registered the lowest collection, falling below target.
According to the Senate session, they either failed to submit all their collections to the Consolidated Fund or set up an ambitious target.
On the other hand, Uasin Gishu, Meru, Wajir, and Narok counties exceeded their collection targets during the reporting period, with their collections matching their overall revenue targets.
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