CoG Defends Governors With Multiple Bank Accounts After Uproar

The Council of Governors (CoG) on Thursday defended the counties operating multiple bank accounts. Through its chair, Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi, the council maintained all accounts opened and operated by the county governments are lawful.

In a statement to the press, the Governor cited reasons for counties operating multiple bank accounts. According to Governor Ahmed, counties run separate entities that are required to have their own accounts.

“In accordance with Section 5(2) of the Facility Improvement Financing Act, 2023, all county health facilities have been declared entities of County Governments and are required to open and operate bank accounts in commercial banks for purposes of revenue retention and expenditure,” Governor Ahmed explained.

The governor noted that the 47 county governments have a total of 7,011 health facilities which are commensurate with the accounts they operate in commercial banks.

“Pursuant to Regulation 82(1)(b) of the PFM (County Governments) Regulations, 2015, County governments are required to open accounts in commercial banks for purposes of revenue collection,” he added.

Since county governments implement various projects funded from conditional grants by development partners, some of the conditions include the requirement to open Special Purpose Accounts for the projects for operational convenience to ensure ring-fencing of these funds for specific projects.

The council at the same time slammed the reports of indicating counties spending zero per cent, dismissing it as misinformation. 

“Counties received zero exchequer releases from the National Treasury during the quarter. Any development done during that quarter was funded from last full year’s arrears while most counties were forced to go for short-term loans from commercial banks to pay salaries and sustain service delivery,” Governor Ahmed explained.

According to the CoG, the first disbursement for quarter one 2024 was received in November, however, no County was able to access the money by the end of the quarter on September 30.

“You cannot spend that which you do not have. This has caused a misleading impression and unwarranted agitation among the members of the public and the media to the detriment of the County Governors and their governments,” the CoG governor lamented.

Governor Ahmed blamed the treasury for delaying the release of the quarterly disbursements which ends crippling counties’ operations. He also lashed out at the controller of the budget for painting county governments in bad light.

“The controller of the budget has continued to scandalize counties while she is aware of the challenges with delayed release of funds, most of which are orchestrated by her office.”

On September 4, the Office of the Controller of Budget announced that county governments operate over 1,000 county bank accounts. The three with the most accounts were: Bungoma County with 321, Migori County with 208, and Kwale with 165 accounts.