The Nairobi City County has issued a statement to admit that an account where Ksh357 million meant for bursary was deposited belongs to the County Government of Nairobi, refuting reports that it is an off-shore account.
In the statement signed by the County Chief Finance Officer Mr Ekaya Alumasi Ghonzour, the County Government stated that the University of Maryland account was opened for the purposes of donor-funded projects.
“On 24th April 2018 and 28th March 2018, the County Treasury opened two accounts, namely Nairobi City County Bursary Fund Account number 01141232396612 and Nairobi City County/University of Maryland Health Services Account number 01141232396611 respectively, both at Cooperative Bank of Kenya, City Hall Branch. The University of Maryland account is an account for donor-funded projects, managed by the Nairobi City County Health Services and the University of Maryland,” stated Mr Ghonzour.
Initially reports had emerged that money meant for bursary amounting to Ksh297 million had been deposited at the University of Maryland account, causing jitters among the Members of County Assembly in Nairobi.
“People took the money and deposited it in Maryland’s account for over a month before the money came. So we want to know who sent the money there and for what, and who returned the money on June 4,” Minority Whip Peter Imwatok said.
The House Education Committee chair, Millicent Mugadi admitted to the monies having been mistakenly deposited into the account but paybacks are being processed.
“The bank received the money on Monday and is currently printing 10, 000 cheques daily and by the end of this week, all the cheques will be ready,” she told the house.
Ghonzour defended the City County accountants stating that once a payment has been invoiced in the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) neither the Validator nor First and Second Approver can see the bank account number that the funds are being transferred to.
“It was thus not possible to know at this time that the funds had been transferred to the wrong Nairobi City account,” added Ghonzour.
The funds were erroneously transferred from Nairobi City County Revenue Account at Central Bank on May 21 to the Nairobi City County/University of Maryland Health Services account.
Read: Nairobi City erroneously deposits monies in University of Maryland account
According to Ghonzour, the Cooperative Bank notified the Nairobi City account on May 28. “We immediately took remedial action next day, 29th May, and directed Cooperative Bank to transfer the money to the Bursary account, which instruction was effected the same day.”
“We wish to confirm that both accounts belong to Nairobi City County Government,”states Ghonzour.
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