Meru County says Governor Kawira Mwangaza’s Executive spent Kshs. 910,000 on foreign travel in the last quarter of the Financial Year 2023/2024 and not Kshs.903 Million as indicated by the Controller of Budget.
During a media briefing at the Meru county government headquarters Friday, the Meru county government Chief Executive Committee member for Finance Ibrahim Mutwiri said in the period in question, the Meru County spent Ksh 43.75 Million on foreign travel of which Ksh 42.84 Million was used by the Meru County Assembly leaving a balance of only Ksh 910,000 to be used by the executive.
“It is evident that the indicated Kshs.903.20 Million is an error apparent on your record,” said Mutwiri in a letter to the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakango
The CEC says the impression that has been created by the report is that the County Executive of Meru has been on a spending spree, squandering public funds on undisclosed foreign travels which amount to close to a Billion.
“The Controller of Budget being a trusted independent Commission with the mandate of reporting on the expenditure of both the national and county governments under Article 228 of the Constitution; its reports on such spending is highly likely to be trusted by everyone,” he said
He wants the Controller of Budget to retract the “misleading and erroneous information” that he claimed has been spreading like wildfire across social media platforms.
The purpose of this letter is, therefore, to request that the gravely misleading error in your report be rectified to reflect the actual amount spent by the County Executive being Kshs.910,000/=. The correction should be given similar prominence and publication to the general public and TV stations which enjoy national viewership to correct the grave error and the damage which has already been occasioned by the blunder,” he wrote in the letter
He insists that the county of Meru does not have such a huge amount of recurrent expenditure to use for the purpose of travel and utilizing in luxurious and non-essential activities.
His sentiments were also echoed by the Meru County Government Secretary Kiambi Athiru who described the report by the office of the Controller of Budget as “a big error” that needs immediate rectification.
