Where is Sh129b Covid-19 donor cash? Here is the answer

Before the dust settles on claims of misuse of Covid-19 funds, the national government is once again on the spot over the whereabouts of alleged Sh129 billion from donors to help counties fight the pandemic.

Sum is the balance of Sh134 billion grants given through the national government by various donors, governors who did not want to be identified said yesterday.

 Out of the figure, Treasury had released only Sh5 billion to the counties “and kept a deafening silence on the Sh129 billion balance”.

People Daily has established that governors are planning to raise the issue of “opaqueness” in the use of funds, lack of a structured engagement with the Ministry of Health and their desire to by-pass the much maligned Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa) in procurement, during their virtual conference with President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday next week.

Reached for comment on the alleged funds, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani dismissed the claims, saying the national government does not owe them money.  “What a big and terrible lie.

As far as we are concerned, the government has disbursed all the money it received to the intended institutions, counties included.

All this that you hear is propaganda against the government,” he said.

Governors spoke as Members of Parliament ordered the Auditor General Janet Gathungu, to within 60 days, conduct a forensic audit on expenditure of Covid-19 funds amounting to Sh236 billion between March 13 to July 31.

The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chaired by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi, however, told Gathungu to provide an interim report within 30 days.

Polite reminder 

According to the legislators, the audit will focus on procurement, warehousing and distribution of essential medicines including Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) with a view to confirming whether the expenditures were incurred lawfully and in an effective way in line with Article 227 of the Constitution.

Wandayi says the general objective of the audit is to identify possible fraud and other financial impropriety, quantify the loss, determine who was involved, when it began, why it was possible to perpetrate it, and how it was concealed.

“The committee has made a decision to direct the Auditor General to undertake an immediate and comprehensive forensic audit on the use of Corona funds from March 13 to July 31, 2020.

We are doing this because since the advent of Covid-19, the government has received various kinds of funds from various sources amounting to Sh236 billion,” Wandayi said.

On Uhuru’s meeting with governors, it emerged yesterday that the Council of Governors (CoG) chief executive Jacqueline Mogeni had notified the county chiefs of the conference. 

Exact figure 

“Good afternoon, Your Excellency, this is a polite reminder about the Covid-19 virtual conference on August 31, from 9am to 3pm which shall be presided over by HE President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The theme of the virtual conference is ‘County Governments Resilience in the Covid Era: Building Sustainability For the Future’,” read Mogeni’s message.

She said the conference will take stock of the county governments Covid-19 response efforts, challenges and recommend strategic policy measures that can be adopted by government in readiness for future pandemics. 

“The meeting will also examine how both levels of government can address the issue of sustainability of emergency in the midst of the pandemic.”

Ahead of the meeting, the CoG held a virtual meeting last Friday at which concerns were raised over the national government’s failure to disburse all money received from donors to assist counties to contain the pandemic.

Meeting presided over by CoG chairman Wycliffe Oparanya, was told of how the government reportedly disbursed Sh5 billion to the devolved units out of Sh134 billion it received from donors.

Some of the donors included the World Bank, Jack Maa Foundation, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, European Union and World Health Organisation, among others.

Oparanya, while confirming that the national government has not disbursed all funds due to the counties as “earlier agreed”, declined to state the exact amount involved. 

“It is true the governors feel the government has frustrated them over funding.

The disbursement has been poor though I do not have the exact figures,” Oparanya said. 

He, however, assured the public that the matter was being handled between the CoG and the national government.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe did not respond to our inquiries.

Human capital

A governor from Nyanza who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter questioned the rationale behind the government’s decision to withhold the money yet health was a devolved function.

According to data from Parliament, besides establishing the Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund, the government was allocated Sh10 billion to boost the cash transfer programme by extending support to the urban vulnerable and the poor. 

Sh1 billion to recruit health workers to strengthen the human capital capacity of the Health ministry, Sh400 million for food and non-food commodities for affected households and another Sh1.5 billion to the Ministry of Heath in the 2019/20 budget for buying testing kits and reagents.

Governors are also demanding to be allowed to procure medical equipment directly from the local and international market without going through Kemsa, which they claim lacks capacity, ability and some stocks.