The Senate has asked the Council of Governors (CoG) to table a status report on utilisation of billions of shillings sunk in various regional economic blocs after the Auditor-General questioned the legality of the entities.
The Senate County Investment and Special Funds Committee said it has written to CoG chairperson Anne Waiguru to provide a report on the administrative, legal and financial status of the blocs.
This is after Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu said the books of accounts for the regional economic blocs had not been audited several years after they were established.
Governors came together at the onset of devolution in 2013 and formed economic blocs as an impetus to jointly grow their economies.
Six such economic blocs were established through mutual understanding between the various counties but not backed by a legal framework
“We had a meeting where the parliamentary liaison officer for the office of Auditor-General told us that they have not audited any regional economic bloc,” Godfrey Otsotsi, who chairs the committee said.
The economic blocs include the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC), The Jumuiya ya Kaunti za Pwani, the North Rift Economic Bloc (NOREB), the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB), the South Eastern Kenya Economic Bloc and the Mt Kenya and Aberdares Region Economic Bloc with 10 counties.
