Bungoma Governor Mr. Wycliffe Wangamati has expressed optimism that at least seven Counties may be found to have a clean audit reports in the last financial year.
Wangamati who is also the Council of Governor’s Finance Planning and Economic affairs committee Chair regretted that weak County audit report was the cause of audit queries by the Auditor General’s office.
Speaking when he presided over the peer learning and experience sharing in Nyandarua County, Wangamati noted that there was a positive progression in financial reporting that had led to the clearing of Makueni and Nyandarua Counties as having unqualified reports, for the 2017/2018 financial year.
“In the financial year 2016/17 only 13 counties had qualified reports, 20 counties had qualified reports in the subsequent financial year with the two clinching clean reports.
“We are expecting at least seven counties to have clean reports for the just concluded year, with at least 26 counties with qualified reports,” he said, adding that it was possible for the 47 counties to have an unqualified audit report.
Wangamati urged the representatives of various counties to learn from Nyandarua and Makueni, noting that actualizing what was deliberated at the workshop on prudent public finance management (PFM) was the key to perfect service delivery.
The County Chief noted that counties represented in the workshop had come up with measures to mend the loopholes that led to unclean audit reports, among them strengthening of internal audits by ensuring their independence.
“Counties will also strengthen their capacity by supporting strategies, initiatives and innovation that strengthen governance and accountability in the PFM,” noted Wangamati adding that counties were also to make a reference to the report of the PFM learning forum held in Nyandarua to help support improvement of the recommendations.
On his part, Nyandarua County Governor Mr. Francis Kimemia noted that his administration would continue with proper utilization of public finances.
By David Njoroge and Anne Sabuni
