Nairobi MCAs reject assets valuation report
The Nairobi County Government will repeat valuation of its fixed assets after a previous report was rejected.
The county assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) ordered a repeat of the valuation after it emerged that some properties may have been undervalued.
Even county government officials, during a PAC meeting to discuss the county Financial Statement by the Auditor-General last week, admitted there were inconsistencies in the valuation report.
Valuation is a requirement for counties to establish what they own in terms of assets and their worth, even as they take over property initially owned by the defunct local authorities in the transition to county governments.
PAC members noted that some assets were grossly undervalued during the valuation in December last year.
PUBLIC TOILETS
For instance, the committee chaired by Mr Robert Mbatia, is not convinced the value of the 13-storey City Hall Annex building is Sh900 million as presented in the report.
One of the new public toilets was valued at Sh400,000 while the City Stadium at Sh10 billion, which the committee feels may not be their actual values.
The MCAs questioned the value of the toilet block and City Hall Annex. This was after the officials told them an acre of land in the city centre costs Sh650 million.
In the report, the value of the lands on which the building and toilet sit is not indicated and which, according to County Secretary Lillian Ndegwa, was not surveyed.
She could not also explain why the Country Bus Station, which measures about 1.8 acres was valued at Sh400 million. Gikomba Market, on three acres of land was valued at Sh500 million.
Ms Ndegwa admitted there were inconsistencies.
“We admit discrepancies in the whole process and we ask for more time to repeat the exercise,” she told the meeting.
LOST IN TRANSITION
The Transition Authority had last year warned that assets and money that counties were taking over might have been lost during the transition.
Some land, cars and property owned by the local authorities were not transferred to county governments by officials who oversaw the transition.
Officials working for the defunct local authorities are believed to have stolen cars and laptops and sold houses and land.
The national government had warned officials against disposing of public assets in their custody during the transition.