City Hall told to account for Sh6m after leasing social halls

City Hall is once again on the spot for failing to account for and illegally using at source over Sh6 million raised from leasing of social halls belonging to Nairobi County.
The revelations emerged during a Nairobi County Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) session at City Hall.
The committee led by Mabatini Ward MCA Wilfred Odalo was questioning the executive concerning the Auditor-General’s queries on lack of documents to support the Sh6,822,500 collected by the county government for the financial year ended June 30, 2018.
FOUR SOCIAL HALLS
According to the auditor-general, an audit of the county’s revenue for the fiscal year revealed that four Social Halls in Kariobangi, Dandora Phases II, III and IV were being hired out and therefore generated revenue in the year under review.
“There was no evidence to show that the halls had generated revenue and if any, it was being spent at source as there were no documents to show how much was being collected,” said an officer from the office of the auditor-general.
The officer said that when they went on the ground there was evidence that the county government was hiring out the social halls for various activities yet they did not present any documents to show what they were collecting for auditing.
RESPONSE
Responding to the audit query, City Hall’s Director of Youths and Sports Daniel Ngare confirmed that they have been leasing out the halls and had raised the amount mentioned but denied spending it at source.
Mr Ngare said that the money realised from hiring of the halls was banked in the county’s revenue accounts and at no point was the county government paid in cash by those who hired the social halls.
He added that the county government charges different rates for leasing the halls depending on their sizes and in accordance with the Finance Act.
INVOICES
“We issue invoices to anyone who wants to use the halls which they pay for in the bank and at no point do we collect cash. It is illegal to collect cash as all the money must be banked,” said Mr Ngare.
He was responding to a question by nominated MCA Silvia Museiya who had asked why the executive had not provided the said evidence that they are now claiming to have during the auditing of the county government’s accounts by the officers from the office of the auditor-general.
This was after the officers from the auditor general’s office told the committee that they never received the said documentary evidence during their auditing.




Post a Comment