Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has defended all the expenditures by his Administration.
While reacting to the Auditors report of 2017/2018 financial year, Sonko said no money was lost.
In the Audit, the Auditor said Sonko’s administration could not provide documents to support expenditures running to nearly Sh20 billion.
Auditor general Edward Ouko said taxpayers may have lost money in unexplained cash withdrawals, payments to contractors, unbanked cheques and staff.
However, Sonko said he has a clean bill and can account for every cent.
Sonko said that unlike the past regime; his administration is now paying all statutory deductions on time.
He said the total expenditure of the county in a year is over 25 billion out of 30 billion.
“How can you misappropriate shs 20 billion,” he posed.
He said the County government has all the documents to prove the expenditure.
He said City Hall has reported several corruption cases to the EACC and DCI and given them original vouchers, contracts and procurement documents.
“I think by the time the Auditor came to us, these documents were not in our possession. The Lumumba pending bill committee was also scrutinizing the pending bills,” he said.
The auditor has questioned the value for money in the Nairobi beautification project.
Ouko said City Hall did not provide any record on the cost of cement, seedlings, PVC pipes, cedar poles among other materials.
Sonko said that since the City beautification project was his pilot project, he had explained to the Senate how he intended to carry it out.
He said apart from the casual workers being paid by the County, he has always paid cash for all the other purchases.
“I have been paying by RTGs from my account; I have got the transfer slips,” he said.
He said some people do not like his beatification project and wants it to fail.
On Tuesday last week, a County Assembly Committee said Sonko has enjoyed a confidential budget since he took office in 2017.
The county Assembly Legal and Justice Committee led by Parklands MCA Jayendra Malde said it has scrapped the secret budget of shs 96 million.
But in a rejoinder, Sonko said he was “not aware of the confidential vote”
The MCA’s had also raised issue with what they said was his “long convoy”.
He said the issue of his convoy should not be an issue because he has always operated that way since he was an MP and Nairobi Senator.
“We are paying NHIF, LAPFUND, LAPTRUST, Insurance, we are paying everything. For us, we are paying. Every month shs 130 million. How much is that in a year,” he posed.
Sonko said some of the issues raised are hearsay.