Kilifi county executives summoned over Ksh45m loss

Kilifi County Assembly Committee on General Oversight on Thursday summoned the executive member for Health and other top officials over the mysterious disappearance of Ksh45 million in unclear circumstances on September 27.

Among those summoned include the county executive for Health, Racheal Musyoki, Chief officer Dr Timothy Malingi and Senior Accountant Jakob Konde who were asked to explain the loss of funds through irregular IFMIS and internet Banking transactions.

During the hearing, it emerged that Ksh30 million was approved by the chief officer for health, although he denied the claims saying the approval was automatic with an extra Ksh15 million that is also missing remaining unexplained.

As per the law, financial transaction of departments undergo various stages before it reaches treasury through IFMIS and Internet banking.

According to Senior Accountant Jakob Konde, there are five passwords used in a department for any financial transaction to go through.

For an IFMIS transaction to be successful, Konde told the committee that it has to undergo validation then approval by the chief officer, followed by approval by the accountant and finally payment.

“Everyone has his or her own username and password that they must not share with anybody,’’ Konde said.

However, the county assembly members learnt that the transaction approvals were done in three departments namely health, finance and roads, raising questions as to how department transactions could be signed by different departments.

Some transactions are also reported to have been approved at 2am, which is irregular, with some of them being passed even after they were rejected by the accountant.

The county executive member for health told the oversight committee that she learnt on September 29 that there was a transaction made on IFMIS indicating that Zohali Services Limited was paid Ksh5, 390,520 and later paid Ksh3,840,124.

Another company that was paid twice was Makegra Supplies Limited which received Ksh7119,220 and Ksh3,243, 958.

Daima One Enterprise was paid twice getting Ksh7,230,940 and Ksh4,100,200, all amounting to Ksh30 ,924,963.

Nixon Muramba, the MCA for Kakuyuni Ward, presented documents showing two people who withdrew the money from three different accounts in Nairobi with their ID numbers and telephone numbers.

The matter is currently under investigations and suspects are recording statements.

The committee chair, Kilifi Speaker Jimmi Kahindi, recommended that the CECs in charge of finance and economic planning  and the county treasury appear before the committee on November 10.