Gov’t siphoning cash from counties through IFMIS, Munya claims

The Council of Governors has linked the government to recent cases of loss of money through the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS).

Addressing the press at a Mombasa hotel Tuesday, November 22, Council of Governors chair, Peter Munya, claimed that the government was working with a criminal gang to siphon money through the system.

Munya defended the counties over loss of billion through IFMIS insisting that the program was imposed to the counties despite their opposition.

Munya was speaking at the closing ceremony of the Inter-Governmental Forum on Agriculture.

He stated that IFMIS is prone to internal manipulation by individuals both at the national and county government levels leading to loss of taxpayers’ money.

The Meru Governor also calling for dialogue between the national government and counties to resolve the raising concerns over the system instead of playing politics with the issue.

The Council of Governor also wants the government to establish an independent forensic audit team to investigate the alleged loss of money at the counties and have the suspects arrested.

Accompanied by other governors, the COG chairman claimed that same gang that was involved in looting of Ksh 51 million in Kilifi County was also accused of siphoning cash in other counties including Kitui, Kakamega and Siaya.

The leaders also accused the national government and the media of using Auditor General’s report to discredit counties and called for proper investigations on those looting money in counties using its official passwords.

The COG chairman also said that it will not accept over 200 nurses that are currently being recruited now to be posted in counties in the country.

This comes days after pressure mounted on Kilifi Governor, Amason Jeffa Kingi, to act on alleged loss of Ksh 51 million in his county.

Kingi has said that Ksh 8 million has already been recovered with investigations ongoing to recover the rest of the money.

The loss of Ksh 1.6 billion at the National Youth Service (NYS) also points at how individuals have learnt how to beat the system, with reports indicating that zeros were added at the end of figures to bloat the budget for the supply of material.