A Senate watchdog committee has directed Kwale Governor Fatuma Achani to take administrative action against county officers who failed to submit key documents to the Office of the Auditor-General during the 2024/25 audit cycle.
The directive was issued by the County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) during a grilling of the Governor over the county’s audit report for the 2024/25 financial year.
The committee raised concerns after scrutiny of the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) payment records revealed that transactions amounting to Sh1.9 billion were initiated but later voided without proper justification or approvals.
CPAC was informed that crucial supporting documents—including voided payment vouchers, requests to void payments, approvals from the National Treasury, and exchequer requisitions to the Controller of Budget—were not submitted for audit review.
Governor Achani explained that the voiding of the transactions was necessitated by a change in the banking system by the Central Bank of Kenya.
“The new system could not carry forward uncleared transactions from the previous system,” she told the Committee;
adding that the county sought approval to void the transactions so they could be reprocessed once the new system was fully rolled out.
She further stated that the transactions had not reached the Controller of Budget for funds requisition, hence the county could not provide exchequer requisitions during the audit.
According to the Governor, the transactions were later processed afresh and the required approvals obtained.
Governor Achani maintained that supporting documents—including payment vouchers and departmental requests to void the payments—were subsequently availed, alongside approvals for spending rights from the National Treasury through the County Treasury.
However, CPAC Chairperson Senator Moses Kajwang questioned why the documents were not submitted during the audit process.
“You should take action against your officers, or the Committee will direct their respective professional bodies to take action,” Senator Kajwang warned;
noting that the omissions amounted to a violation of the Public Audit Act.
Despite the concerns, the Committee expressed cautious optimism after learning that Kwale County is among the few counties with relatively low pending bills, currently standing at about Sh200 million.
“It is good that your pending bills are not in the billions,” Senator Samson Cherarkey told the Governor, although Senator Kajwang cautioned against premature commendation.
The Committee directed Governor Achani to submit a detailed report on the county’s pending bills based on an ageing analysis, clearly indicating amounts outstanding for over three years, two years, and one year, as well as reasons why older bills remain unsettled.
CPAC also directed the Office of the Auditor-General to keep the matter under review, noting that the issue will be revisited during the audit implementation stage.
