Ministry on spot over Sh10 million airtime

juma chrispinus

August 17, 2018 11:28 AM

The PS in the accused ministry has said that the ministry erroneously paid Sh7 million.

The National Assembly report has raised a flag on the expenditure on airtime amounting to Sh10.7 million in the Ministry of Water.

Already MPs have opened investigations into the ministry’s expenditure on airtime, the highest amount anyone would imagine in a span of one accounting year.

In turn, the house’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), is also probing the ministry for exceeding budgetary cupping when purchasing a vehicle for a Cabinet secretary.

The investigation comes after Auditor General Edward Ouko in the 2014/2015 financial year, revealed that the ministry spent Sh10.7 million on airtime and Sh7 million for the purchase of the vehicle.

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This was in contrary to a circular from the Office of the President which gave a limit of Sh2 million for such expenditure.

Dr Ouko said the department spent Sh5 million irregularly and the amount is yet to be recovered. But Water Permanent Secretary James Irungu, who appeared before the committee to shed light on the 2014/2015 financial year expenditure, said the ministry erroneously paid Sh7 million without withholding the 30 per cent tax of Sh2.1 million which was supposed to be remitted to Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

He, however, confirmed that the ministry is in the process of recovering the money.

In his report, Ouko also raised the red flag over the Sh10.7 million spent on purchase of airtime, Sh2.5 million on cleaning services and Sh5.1 million on security whose contracts had expired on June 30, 2013 and were not renewed.

Devolution CS Eugene Wamalwa was the CS at the time.

juma chrispinus