By Antynet Ford
Nairobi City County spent Sh1.21 billion on local and foreign trips in the first nine months of the financial year 2023-2024, the Controller of Budget (COB) has revealed in a report.
In her report, Nyakang’o revealed that the Sakaja-led team spent Sh902.19 million while the Nairobi legislators spent Sh314.24 million.
The expenditure on domestic travel amounted to Sh567.60 million, comprising Sh244.76 million spent by the assembly and Sh322.84 million by the Executive.
The expenditure on foreign trips amounted to Sh 658.83 million, with Members of County Assembly spending Sh69.48 million and the Executive Sh589.35 million.
In the report, the Controller of Budget stated that the county assembly failed to provide documents and details on foreign travel.
“The county assembly did not provide information on foreign travel despite the Controller of Budget approving 12 foreign travel requests over the nine months of the financial year.” The report stated.
The City executive in the period under review had 10 foreign trips.
Nyakang’o highlighted that 19 officers travelled to Marrakesh, Morocco, from June 10 to 24, 2024, to attend a proactive management programme, for Sh37,235,843 million.
In December 5-11 last year, 14 officers attended a seminar on leadership management and conflict resolution in Vancouver, Canada, for Sh10.92 million while another group of 14 officers travelled to Vancouver for a workshop on the same topic, with expenses amounting to Sh9.6 million.
Eight officers participated in a personal branding and professional summit in Dubai from August 22 to September 7, 2023, costing Sh8.99 million.
A set of eight officers attended a series of summits alongside the 8th United Nations General Assembly in New York from September 16 to 23, 2023, with a total expense of Sh8.782,76 million.
Additionally, eight officers were sent to Vancouver for a conference on experimental learning and process implementation from June 30 to July 30, 2023, costing Sh6.76 million.
On October 17-21, 2023, seven officers attended the FIAT/IFTA world conference in Locarno, Switzerland, costing Sh 5.36 million.
In the same month, eight officers participated in a water inclusivity and sewerage conference in Tokyo, Japan, from October 14 to 22, which cost Sh5 million.
Further, a group of officers attended a global meeting on school meals in France, incurring a total cost of Sh4.69 million.
The Sakaja led administration failed to provide documents for the foreign trips, which the CoB noted was against Section 16 of the CoB Act, 2016 and therefore an offence.
“Information on bank overdrafts and borrowing, status reports on outstanding pending bills, details of bank accounts being operated, and information on foreign travel was not provided.” Nyakang’o stated in the report.
“The county government should ensure they operate within the law and be accountable for public resources.” She added.
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