How City Hall has failed to account for Sh6 million revenue from social halls
City Hall is once again on the spot for failing to account for more than Sh6 million raised from leasing of social halls belonging to the county.
The revelations emerged during a Nairobi County Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) session at City Hall on Wednesday.
The committee led by Mabatini Ward MCA Wilfred Odalo were querying the executive concerning the Auditor General’s queries on a lack of documents to support the Sh 6,822,500 collected by the county government for the financial year ended June 30, 2018.
According to the Auditor General, an audit of the county’s revenue for the fiscal year revealed that four Social Halls at Kariobangi, Dandora Phases II, III and IV were being hired out and therefore generated revenue in the year under review.
“There was no evidence to show that the halls had generated revenue and if any, it was being spent at source as there were no documents to show how much was being collected,” said an officer from the office of the auditor general.
The officer said that when they went on the ground there were evidence that the county government was hiring out the social halls for various activities yet they did not present any documents to show what they were collecting for auditing.
Responding to the audit query, City Hall director of Youths and Sports Mr Daniel Ngare, nonetheless, confirmed that they have been leasing the halls and had raised the amount mentioned but denied spending it at source.
Mr Ngare said that the revenue realized from hiring of the halls were banked at the county’s revenue accounts and at no point was the county government paid in cash by those who hired the social halls.
COLLECT CASH
The director added that the county government charges different rates for leasing the halls depending on their sizes and in accordance with the Finance Act.
“We issue invoices for anyone who wants to use the halls which they pay in bank and at no point do we collect cash. It is illegal to collect cash as all the money must be banked,” said Mr Ngare.
He was responding to a question by nominated MCA Silvia Museiya who had asked why the executive had not availed the said evidence they are claiming to have during the auditing of the county government’s accounts by the officers from the office of the Auditor General.
This was after the officers from the auditor general’s office had told the committee that they never received the said documentary evidence during their auditing.