This archive report was first published on 9 July 2020.
On July 9, 2020, a report by the Controller of Budget revealed that Nairobi County government could have spent more than Sh600 million on ghost development projects in the just-ended financial year.
The report, which reviewed the county's budget implementation for the first half of the 2019/2020 financial year, highlighted a significant discrepancy in the county's development expenditure.
Despite spending Sh632.1 million as development expenditure in the first six months, the county could not provide a list of development projects implemented during the period under review.
According to the report, the county's development expenditure represented 5.6 percent of the annual development budget of Sh11.27 billion.
Interestingly, the county government's expenditure on domestic travel more than doubled compared to the same period in the financial year ending June 30, 2019, hitting Sh337.9 million, an increase of 114.7 percent from Sh157.35 million in the first half of 2018/2019.
On a positive note, the county government was able to reduce its expenditure on compensation to employees by 15.6 percent, spending only Sh5.92 billion compared to Sh7 billion spent during a similar period in the 2018/19 financial year.
The Controller of Budget, Ms Margaret Nyakang'o, has called on the County Treasury to formulate and implement strategies to enhance revenue collection, control expenditure on non-core areas, and prepare project implementation status reports on a quarterly basis.
