Senate proposes CoG funding law as Waiguru responds to audit queries

The Senate Committee on Public Accounts and Investments is proposing that a law be enacted to guide how county governments should fund the Council of Governors (CoG).

The senators made the recommendations Wednesday after Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru appeared before the committee to respond to audit queries.

During the session, Ms Waiguru said that county governments had agreed to complement the CoG, noting that it is not adequately funded yet it offers support to the devolved units.

She said counties transfer cash to the council based on agreed annual subscription amounts which are then acknowledged and accounted for by the CoG secretariat. 

The Kirinyaga governor called on the Senate committee to formulate legislation to guide such funding by the counties in order to avoid audit queries in future. 

The Senate committee, chaired by Kisii Senator Sam Ongeri, recommended that such legislation on CoG funding be captured in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report.

Satisfied with submissions

On internal queries regarding the use of funds in procurement of furniture and roads equipment, the Auditor-General’s office cleared the Kirinyaga county government, saying it was satisfied with the submissions made by Ms Waiguru.

However, the legislators advised the county’s finance department to always submit its documents at the time of the audit to save it the trouble of having to appear before the committee.

Regarding an audit query raised on the fixed assets register, Ms Waiguru said her office had already fully updated it and that this was confirmed by the Auditor-General’s office.

She also clarified that the county excluded some pieces of land from the asset register because they still had pending court cases.

At the same time, MS Waiguru told the senators the county’s health sector is undergoing full automation of its information management system in order to enhance service delivery and management of medical supplies.

She added that automation of the Kirinyaga revenue collection system is also under way, saying it will resolve some of the challenges which are likely to raise audit queries in future.