City Hall. [PHOTO/nation.co.ke]
Nairobi MCAs have been shocked after learning that City Hall was operating over 20 secret bank accounts.
According to a report tabled in the county assembly chamber last Thursday, City Hall runs 31 bank accounts with four at the Central Bank and 27 others at commercial banks.
It operates 15 accounts at Cooperative Bank, two at Equity Bank, seven at National Bank, two at KCB and one at Chase Bank.
This is in contravention of the Public Finance Management Act which requires that the county have two main accounts.
One of the two should be a revenue fund account specifically for receiving monies from the Exchequer and internal revenue.
The second is a development fund account that receives disbursements from Central Bank for development.
According to the report by Budget and Appropriations Committee chairperson Robert Mbatia, some questionable accounts have overdrafts that total Sh499.9 million.
The figure excludes nine accounts whose balances as at June 30 this year the committee could not ascertain.
Furthermore, only three of the 27 accounts with commercial banks are approved.
“Most of these accounts were inherited by the former regime, which continued operating them. Even though it is true we need some of them, the county should have known that we have a new Constitution,” he said.