A lobby group has named failure to implement recommendations by the office of the Auditor General as the reason why counties have faced a crisis since the inception of devolution.
Centre for Transformational Leadership says since 2013, the Auditor General has been making recommendations concerning how counties can address issues surrounding expenditure but all has been in vain.
Nancy Kubutha, an officer from the lobby group says this has led to the repeat of the similar mistakes committed by previous governments as far as management of public funds is concerned hindering development.
“We need to ensure the recommendation of the reports of the Auditor General and that action is taken where there are aspects of criminality so that we save counties from losing money meant for development,” said Kubutha.
She was speaking in Nakuru on Friday during a Civil Society Organizations’ advocacy meeting on the dissemination of the report analysis of the Auditor General’s Reports for Nakuru County for Financial Years 2015/2016 to 2017/2018.
The analysis was carried out by Centre for Transformational Leadership in partnership with the `Institute of Economic Affairs from March 2019.
According to Auditor General’s Reports, Nakuru county was unable to account for a total of Sh10.2 billion.
This according to the Auditor General was contributed to by various factors among them lack of compliance with regulations, lack of proper public participation and poor management and oversight of public resources and county revenue.
It is for this reason that the Nakuru Civil Society organizations have vowed to work closely with the County Assembly Public Accounts Committee to ensure there is accountability and transparency.