Kenya's national and county governments manually withdrew Sh1.3 trillion ($10.1 billion) over a seven-month period, bypassing the automated financial system designed to ensure transparency and accountability, the local Nation newspaper said, citing a confidential report by Budget Controller Margaret Nyakang'o to the National Assembly's Finance and National Planning Committee.
The manual withdrawals to pay debt, pensions, and other recurrent expenditures recorded in the report took place between July 12 and February 20, with the largest amount of Sh893.97 billion (about $7 billion) being for public debt payments.
Addressing the Finance and National Planning Committee last week, Nyakang'o reportedly expressed concerns about the lack of specificity in some requisitions, which were submitted as lump sums, making it difficult to track how the funds were spent.
"I must raise this issue with the National Treasury in writing because I now have enough data. Why are we still making payments manually when we have an automated system?" media quoted Nyakang'o as saying.