In Summary:
- Nakuru County Government leads with 301 bank accounts, primarily for healthcare and education
- Most counties prioritize and operate health-related accounts, shedding light on primary needs in focus.
- Most of these accounts are established and operated with commercial banks, violating the laws that require counties to manage their accounts with the Central Bank of Kenya.
The County Governments Budget Implementation Report Review in the first quarter of FY 2024/25 by the Office of the Controller of Budget shows a blatant violation of Regulations 82(1)(b) of the PFM (County Government) Regulations, 2015, which requires county government bank accounts to be opened and operated at the Central Bank of Kenya.
County governments like Nakuru and Bungoma are operating more than 300 bank accounts—a bunch of them with commercial banks—putting these counties at risk of embezzlement and mismanagement of funds. This continues to unashamedly happen despite the back-to-back reminder by the Controller of Budget every quarter in review.
The Office of the Controller of Budget has recommended and reminded county governments to ensure that their bank accounts are only opened and managed at the Central Bank of Kenya in line with the local laws. Only impress bank accounts for petty cash and revenue collection accounts are, however, exempt.
The report shows that major focus sectors operating multiple bank accounts are health and education. For instance, the county government of Bungoma, operating 300 accounts with commercial banks, has 145 of them meant for sub-county hospitals, 14 for level four and five hospitals, and 115 for tertiary institutions.
Some of these counties have also spent less on the expenditure despite receiving a plump of budgeting disbursement from the exchequer to the tunes of billions of Kenyan shillings, while others rake into huge pending bills, obliterating the need to focus more on development. The grim performance of county governments in Kenya shows the lack of lean leadership, which requires a priority-focused mindset.
