Meru County health department inflated the price of refilling a 13-kg gas cylinder by about 300 per cent in the 2016/17 financial year, audit report shows.
According to Auditor -General Edward Ouko’s report on the Meru county executive finances, the department paid Sh1.044 million for refilling 180, 13-kg gas cylinders at hospitals in May 2017.
“The audit review established that the refilling of the gas cylinders was done at Sh5,800 each instead of the market price of Sh2,000 each resulting in an overpayment of Sh684,000,” reads the report.
“This is contrary to section 54 of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act 2015 that requires standard goods, works and services with known market prices to be procured at prevailing market prices.”
The auditor has recommended the recovery of the irregular expenditure of Sh684,000.
The audit also found that Meru spent Sh1.67 million on three officials travelling to Sweden and China for “private” business.
Mr Ouko also cites the county over the hiring of 1,331 employees in the year but 472 workers could not be accounted for. The audit found that furniture worth Sh3.2 million purchased in 2016/17 could not be traced.
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