A committee of the Senate has given the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) a month ultimatum to conclude investigations into the outstanding imprest for Bungoma County which has dragged on since 2019.

The County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) gave the directive after it was told concerned employees have failed to surrender the imprest amounting to Sh67 million as at June 2020 because the Commission had carted away documents related to the issuance of the imprests.

The Committee chairman Moses Kajwang directed the commission to expedite the investigations so that those holding the monies should not use the commission as justification for their failure to surrender the money.

“We shall hold the EACC and its CEO to account if the funds are not surrendered as provided for in the law,” said Senator Kajwang on Monday, August 7, 2023.

The directive was issued when Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka appeared before the committee to defend the County’s revenue and expenditure account for the 2019/20 financial year.

Governor Lusaka is the immediate former Senate Speaker having served between 2017 and 2022.

In her report, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu said the county had issued imprests totaling Sh67.1 million for the year ending June 30, 2020. 

However, an audit carried out in December of the same year indicated that imprests totaling Sh8.9 million had been accounted for, leaving a balance of Sh58 million still outstanding. 

This is contrary to Regulation 93(5) of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015 which requires imprest holders to surrender or account for imprests within seven working days after returning to duty station.

In his response, Governor Lusaka told the committee that a total of Sh40 million had since been surrendered and annexed payments vouchers to as evidence.

Supporting documents for another Sh15.7 million were taken by the EACC before the imprest surrenders were fully processed while documents in support of another Sh2.3 million are subject of a court case.

However, the committee faulted the governor of having failed to demand certified copies of the documents carted away by EACC to demand recovery of the money from the employees affected.

The documents were taken away in 2019 and the committee cautioned the EACC that it should not be a justification for failure by the county to recover the imprests.