MCAs want Sh297m City Hall bursary fund audited

The Nairobi County bursary fund scandal has taken a new twist after a watchdog committee demanded a forensic audit to unearth individuals involved in the transaction.

On Tuesday, it was revealed that more than Sh297 million meant for the bursary in the county was wrongly deposited into a foreign account that was opened by Australian donors to channel funds for the construction of Dandora Primary School — where the money stayed for more than a month before being returned on Monday.

Budget and Appropriation Committee chairman Robert Mbatia said they would want to establish whether the fund was wired to the said foreign account and when the transaction was done.

“We want to know when the money was wired from the Treasury to the bank, and whether money ever went to that account.

“We would like we get a forensic audit to ascertain when the money was deposited at the bank and if it ever went to the Maryland account,” he said.

Mr Mbatia said the executive in charge of Finance and the chief financial officer who are county signatories and are the only ones to make a requisition to the Controller of Budget for the funds who will then approve the request and then instructs the Treasury to release the money.

The Kariobangi South MCA said they would call the management of the bank involved and the finance department officials to shed more light on the saga next week to ascertain whether there was such a transaction.

He added that during the requisition officials must indicate the purpose of the fund.

“We have to give them seven days to prepare so by Wednesday we will call them here to tell us if there was ever such a transaction because we are the over sighting committee,” said Mr Mbatia.