Tuesday, July 9, 2024 – Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka is once again in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.
This is after it emerged that he was operating a whopping 352
fictitious bank accounts for the County Government of Bungoma contrary to the
law.
This was unearthed by the Controller of Budget Margaret
Nyakang’o through County Governments Budget Implementation Review Report for
the first 9 months of FY 2023/24.
According to Nyakang’o, the county operated 352 accounts at
various local banks during the period under review.
The whole of Bungoma County had around 12 different banks
meaning the County Government has an average of 30 accounts in every bank in
the area.
“The County government operated a total of 352 accounts with
commercial banks,” Nyakang’o noted in her report.
“This is contrary to Regulations 82(1)(b) of the PFM (County
Governments) Regulations, 2015, which requires that County government bank
accounts be opened and maintained at the Central Bank of Kenya.”
According to the Office of the Controller of the Budget, the
only time a county government is allowed to have a different account is for
imprest bank account for petty cash.
A county government is also given leeway to operate a local bank
account for revenue collection and expenditure.
The number of bank accounts operated by Bungoma County keeps
rising. A March 2024, report by the controller of the budget showed that the
county had 321 bank accounts.
This means in less than a month, the County Government opened an
extra 31 bank accounts.
It was not clear why the governor was operating more bank
accounts than schools and hospitals in the region.
Lusaka is not new to controversies as during his first term, he
was embroiled in a procurement scandal where he purchased a simple wheelbarrow
for Sh115,000.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
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