Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu wants to know why Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i and Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya were removed from the board membership of Kenya Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund Limited company.

She says the company’s registration documents presented to auditors did not include Matiang’i and Oparanya — then chairman of the Council of Governors — among directors of the company.

“There was no explanation for the exclusion of the two,” reads the audit report. In her report on the accounts of the Government, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the 2020/21 financial years submitted to Parliament on June 2, 2022, Gathungu also queried the legality of the company.

Gathungu has in the past raised concerns over the registration of the company. She did so in a special audit on the utilisation of Covid-19 funds covering the period March 13, 2020, when Covid-19 was first reported in the country, to July 31, 2020.

The auditor said no explanation was given on why a public fund reportedly established under the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act was registered as a company limited by guarantee under the Companies Act of 2015.”

National Treasury and the Office of Attorney-General have also differed on whether the Emergency Response Fund is a public or a private fund, and whether Sh2.6 billion the fund had collected by February this year, which included Sh338.49 million from the government, is public or private money