County bans senior officers from foreign travels

By Peter Ochieng

Senior Busia County government officers have been banned from travelling abroad, during a two-week audit period.

The audit exercise will run for 15 working days, from today 3rd September to 23rd September 2024, spearheaded by officers from the Auditor General’s office.

Those affected are County Executive Committee Members (CECMs), Chief Officers and Directors.

While issuing the directive on Tuesday, Busia governor Paul Nyongesa Otuoma said the move has been taken to ensure the officers are readily available during the audit period, to respond to any question from the auditors or provide the necessary documentation, where need be.

“This will in turn improve compliance and reduce cases of audit queries at the senate,” he said while addressing the officers and auditors from the Office of the Auditor General at the Busia Agricultural Training Centre (ATC).

Governor Otuoma asked departmental heads to be accountable and give credible reports, on audit and finance processes, urging departmental accountants, chief officers and directors to avail relevant documents that will provide proper financial audits.

The first term county boss expressed his commitment to financial accountability and proper use of public resources, in a bid to ensure that the people of Busia get value for their money.

“As they begin their legal and constitutional mandate to audit financial statements of the year 2023/2024 of our County, my administration is committed to cooperate with the Auditor General's team.,” he said.

“I wish to thank Auditor General's team from Western Region, led by Director Peter Gitonga, who offered insightful advice, during this morning's meeting, on the benefits of compliance by availing supporting documents for information processing, as well as the implementation of internal audit report,” added the former Funyula MP.

The generated Auditor General's report will afterwards guide members of the Senate Public Accounts Committee on objectively oversight the County Government of Busia.