President Kibaki’s and PM Raila Odinga’s constituencies are among those that cannot account for part of Sh136.5 million Constituency Development Fund (CDF) cash allocated to them. An audit of 23 constituencies and seven local authorities, carried by the National Taxpayers Association (NTA) in 2006/07 financial year indicates that Kibaki’s Othaya constituency misused Sh8.6 million and could not account for another Sh185,000.
In Raila’s Lang’ata constituency, Sh7.4 million was misused and Sh9.8 million could not be accounted for.
According to the audit, a total of Sh1.2 billion was disbursed from Treasury to the 23 constituencies. However, up to Sh170.2 million was misused in the 23 constituencies.
Othaya received Sh77.7 million while Lang’ata got Sh24.6 million in the 2006/07 financial year.
Lang’ata CDF secretary Edward Ketta said he has not received any letter from the National CDF board on any unaccounted for money. He said the board cannot disburse any further funding should any constituency be unable to account for some funds.
"The CDF board cannot give money if there is money unaccounted for. Although I was not a board official in 2006, I cannot remember seeing any letter from the board on unaccounted for funds," Mr Ketta told The Standard.
Bills of quantities
But Othaya CDF manager Lucy Nyakeru said it is true the constituency had not accounted for Sh185,000 by the time NTA was going round. The amount was however later disbursed to two schools by the end of that financial year.
Kajembe"We could not release Sh50,000 to Boma Nursery School because it had not submitted the bills of quantities. Another cheque of Sh135,000 meant for Kihuri Secondary School was also withheld because they had not submitted the drawings and designs for the new school. We, however, released the cheques later after they complied," said Mrs Nyakeru.
NTA is a national, volunteer based, independent non-partisan organisation established to improve delivery of services as well as the management of devolved funds for the benefit of all Kenyans.
Some of its members are Kenya Private Sector Association (Kepsa), Institute of Certified Public Accountants (Icpak), Transparency International-Kenya, Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem), National Informal Sector Coalition (Nisco), Centre for Governance and Development (CGD), Kenya Female Advisory Organisation (Kefeado), Kenya Alliance of Residents Association (Kara) and the Catholic Justice & Peace Commission, among others.
Deputy Executive Director of Legal Resources Foundation, Mr Henry Maina attributed the problem of unaccounted for funds to lack of capacity in the national CDF board to audit the nitty gritty of the projects.
Another avenue, Mr Maina, said is where money marked for emergency is set aside and then finally listed as spent when no emergency occurs.
According to the audit, Kisumu Town West, whose MP then was Ken Nyagudi, leads the pack with Sh21.5 million unaccounted for and another Sh17.1 million misused. The constituency received Sh73 million for its CDF kitty during the period.
Changamwe silverware
But Ramadhan Kajembe’s Changamwe constituency goes home with a silverware after returning a clean bill of accounts in the misused and unaccounted for moneys. According to the audit, Changamwe effectively used the Sh52.1 million allocated to it.
Agriculture Minister William Ruto’s Eldoret North constituency could also not account for Sh3.9 million and misused Sh5.2 million, while Beth Mugo’s Dagoretti had Sh3.6 million unaccounted for and Sh4.6 million misused. The two constituencies got allocations of Sh51.9 million and Sh56.3 million respectively.
NTA national coordinator Michael Otieno noted that majority of MPs whose constituencies could not account for the CDF money did not make it back to Parliament.
"This amounts to significant misuse of our tax revenue and NTA demands that MPs and local authorities complete all projects and accounts for the entire sum disbursed to them," said Otieno.
Only eight MPs of the 21 whose constituencies could not account for some CDF money made it back to Parliament. These are Kibaki, Raila, Ruto, Mugo, Fred Gumo (Westlands), Najib Balala (Mvita), Chris Okemo (Nambale) and Anyang’ Nyong’o (Kisumu Rural).
Mukurweini constituency, under the then Information Minister Mutahi Kagwe, also returned a clean sheet on unaccounted for CDF money. However, it misused Sh6.5 million.
CDF board Public Relations Officer Nixon Ng’ang’a said even though the board welcomes audits from stakeholders, it hoped the investigations fulfilled the fundamentals of professional auditing.
"I have just received a copy of the audit and I need to study it before giving a comprehensive comment. However, we hope the audit had good intentions and that it met the technical competence befitting such a process," Mr Ng’ang’a told The Standard on telephone.
He, however, said the board had not been informed of the audit.
Data collection for the study was done in one year, which ended in August last year and analyses of the same conducted early this year.
The NTA coordinator said the study covered 2006-07 because it was undertaken in March 2008.
Official Secrets Act
"This is because, by the time, only projects in the 2006-07 financial year had been completed or were in progress," Otieno said.
He said information was gathered from people who directly benefit from the projects, constituency fund managers and town clerks. NTA also perused official government and constituency records for information.
But Transparency International-Kenya Executive Director, Job Ogonda, who is also a member of NTA, said soliciting of information was at times frustrated in observance with the Officials Secrets Act, that bars civil servants from disclosing some information to the public.
"Most of the information was surrendered to NTA as a favour. The Government must immediately repeal the Official Secrets Act by enacting the Freedom of Information Bill, to allow citizens get information," said Ogonda.
The Executive Director of Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), Ms Betty Maina, expressed dismay at the misuse of public resources.
"One of the glaring findings that will receive a lot of publicity from this findings is the sheer amount of waste that accompanies spending of public money by those we elect to represent our interests at civic and constituency level," Ms Maina said.
The 23 constituencies were randomly picked from the eight provinces, but their proximity to the NTA operation bases also played a role in their selection.
Three constituencies were picked from every province except for North Eastern where only one was selected. Otieno attributed this to difficulty in mobility.
Kathiani constituency, which was under Peter Kaindi, ranked second posting Sh12.3 million unaccounted for. It was allocated Sh38.4 million during the period.
Butula comes third with Sh10.4 million unaccounted for. Christine Mango is the former MP. It had received Sh53.7 million.
The survey notes that misused money comprise amounts spent on poor quality construction both for complete and incomplete projects.
CDF was established by an Act of Parliament in 2003 to ensure that development projects at the constituency level benefit from 2.5 per cent of the Government’s annual revenue. The allocation was, however, reviewed to 3.5 per cent in 2006/7 financial year.
The money is channeled from the National Management Board to the Constituency Development Committees of the respective constituencies in which MPs serve as the patrons.
Unaccounted for CDF money
Kisumu Town West sh21.5 million
Kathiani sh12.3 million
Butula sh10.4 million
Lang’ata sh9.8 million
Kisauni sh7.96 million
Dujis sh7.94 million
Kisumu Rural sh7.92 million
Likoni sh7.72 million
Nambale sh7.5 million
Westlands sh7.1 million
Funyula sh5.8 million
Eldoret East sh5.4 million
Mvita sh4.6 million
Eldoret South sh4.3 million
Eldoret North sh3.9 million
Dagoretti sh3.6 million
Nyeri town sh3.5 million
Machakos Town sh3.1million
Tetu sh1 million
Kisumu Town East sh0.85 million
Othaya sh0.18 million
Mukurweini Nil
Changamwe Nil
Source: The Standard
