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Auditor General Gathungu questions KPA's Ksh17m payment for Bandari 'cheering squad'
The questions raised come at a time other Premier League clubs have found it hard to pay players
The Kenya Ports Authority paid Ksh17 million in allowance for its staff to attend Bandari Football Club matches as a cheering squad, the Auditor General’s report has claimed.
Bandari, formed in 1985, are one of the sports entities owned by KPA but runs independently from the parastatal. Each financial year, the Dockers are allocated money by KPA so that it can run its season assignments independently.
The report, which has been tabled in parliament, by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu shows some staff members of the ports authority were paid the allowances to accompany the coastal team in its Premier League assignments.
The Ksh17 million is part of the Ksh96 million that Gathungu's report - that was tabled in the national assembly by the Majority Leader Amos Kimunya - has claimed is unsupported sports expenditure.
"The expenditure includes Sh17 million paid to staff to attend football matches of Bandari Football Club. However, it was not clear how and why the authority issued imprests to staff in the football cheering team given that the club is an independent entity with its own budget," part of the audit stated as reported by Business Daily.
The report further questioned subsistence and transport allowance given to Bandari's staff to attend various tournaments.
"The management did not provide details on how the team management units employees and no-employees players were selected to participate in various tournaments and subsistence allowance paid," Gathungu's findings added.
"Further, an approved policy on the terms of engagement with the team management units on the engagements of non-employees were not provided for audit review," says Gathungu in the report.
The government's financial watchdog body further raised questions on how Ksh53 million was paid to staff as bonuses. The report said the bonus evaluation was not based on individual evaluated performance but on a one-month basic salary for all employees.
Bandari is among the Kenyan clubs that have enjoyed financial stability over several seasons.
A top official at Bandari referred Goal to KPA to explain the matter, "The Auditor General questioned KPA's financial use, not Bandari per se. So, KPA remains the best people to give an explanation even though we have been mentioned as a club in the report."
