The Senate Public Accounts Committee has called for the prosecution of any County Assembly officials involved in the misappropriation of funds or any other illegal activities, in accordance with the law.

Additionally, the committee has ordered a special audit of the Migori and Homa Bay County Assemblies, both of which have received negative audit opinions.

"The Committee cannot confirm the accuracy of the records provided. We request that the House authorize this Committee to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to address any identified illegalities and irregularities in accordance with the law, and to direct a special audit of entities with adverse opinions," stated committee chairman Moses Kajwang.

This follows the committee’s review of the Auditor-General’s reports on the financial statements for 47 county assemblies for the 2023/2024 financial year, which revealed several fiduciary risks.

While presenting a motion for the adoption of the report in the House, Kajwang urged that the Committee be allowed to summon the entities with adverse opinions and invite the accounting officers of other entities to ensure that the Auditor-General’s concerns are addressed.

The Committee observed that the Migori and Homa Bay County Assemblies received adverse opinions and recommended that the accounting officers recover the outstanding imprests along with interest, in accordance with Regulation 93(6) of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015.

Additionally, the Committee has called for sanctions and surcharges to be imposed on accounting officers who fail to recover the outstanding imprests, as stipulated in Regulation 93(7) of the PFM (County Government) Regulations, 2015.

In a report presented to the House, the Senate committee further instructed the Clerks of the two Assemblies to submit a status report to the Office of the Auditor General within 60 days of the report's adoption.

The committee, led by Senator Moses Kajwang, has recommended that in cases where failure to recover imprests results in an Adverse or Disclaimer opinion, the clerks should be held accountable and enforce the sanctions specified in Section 62(2) of the Public Audit Act, 2015.

Section 62(2) of the Public Audit Act stipulates that any person who violates subsection (1) commits an offense and, upon conviction, may face a fine of up to Sh5 million, imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or both.