The County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) held a meeting with the Public Accounts and Investment Committee of Kakamega County Assembly which is on a week-long benchmarking tour of the Senate.

During the meeting the two committees discussed ways in which oversight can strengthened in all the 47 counties with the Senate Committee playing the role of a brother.

Mr Titus Mahelo, who chairs the committee at the County Assembly, revealed that the Committee has embarked on the tour to learn best oversight practises from the Senate and know the best legal tools to use in ensuring County Executive officers implement with recommendations of the committee once adopted by the House.

He also revealed that the work of the committee is hampered by political interference and lack of financial autonomy.

"We also expect that at the end of this visit, we shall succeed in strengthening our committee as it gets to serious yet critical task of ensuring proper use of funds by the County Executive," Mr Mahelo said.

CPAC, which is chaired by Senator Moses Kajwang (Homa Bay) told the committee to remain steadfast in ensuring prudent use of funds by the Governor and resist attempts to be divided along party lines while executing their mandate.

"We hope you will be well trained and empowered to do your work during your stay in the Senate," Senator Kajwang pointed out, telling the Kakamega Assembly committee to consider linking audit reports to financial rewards.

Until the implementation of the third generation formula, counties were rewarded for prudential use of funds. 

In the second generation formula fiscal responsibility was considered a parameter which was weighted at 2 per cent of the total allocation due to each county.

This means that counties that earned favourable audit reports were located more funds than those whose reports were less favourable.

"I implore you to bring back that link," Senator Kajwang said.