Financial Officers in the Ministry of Local Government, Kenya
| Author | A. Altorfer |
| Date | 01 January 1961 |
| Published date | 01 January 1961 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1961.tb01253.x |
Financial
Officers
in
the
Ministry
of
Local
Gooernment,
Kenya
by A. AL
TORFER,
Principal
Financial
Officer
EIGHTEEN
financial officers
are
employed
at
the
present time,
September
1960,
by
the
Ministry of Local
Government,
Kenya,
and
there
are
four vacancies
unfilled.
Nearly
all
are
professional accountants, mostly
Chartered
Municipal
Treasurers
who
gained
their
qualifications
and
local
government
experience in
the
United
Kingdom.
Nine
of
them
occupy posts in
the
headquarter
establish-
ment
of
the
Ministry,
and
the
other
nine
are
seconded as financial advisers to
African district councils. Since their respective functions
are
quite
distinct,
each
will be described in a
separate
part
of this article.
OFFICERS
AT
HEADQ.UARTERS
The
primary
function of
the
officers
at
headquarters
is to
audit
the
accounts.
of
the local authorities in
Kenya.
Unlike
the
arrangements
in most
other
colonial
territories
where
the
Director
of
Audit
has
audited
local
authority
as well as
government
accounts,
the
Kenya
local
government
legislation has for
many
years provided for
the
appointment
of
one or
more
inspectors specially for this
work,
although
the
African district council audits were
carried
out
by
the
Director
of
Audit
until
1953,
when
they were
taken
over by the local govern-
ment
inspectorate.
District
Education
Boards,
of
which
there is one for every African district
council
area
(except for two very small councils)
are
not
local
government
bodies,
but
they
each
have
four members
appointed
by
the
council of
the
area,
usually from
among
its
own
membership.
The
Government
pays two-thirds
of
the
net
education
expenditure
of
the
Boards,
the
councils
contributing
the
remaining
one-third,
amounting
to over £t million between 24 councils in 1960.
The
close connection
between
the
African district councils
and
the
district
education
boards has
now
led (since
July
1959) to
the
responsibility for
the
audit
of
the
accounts of
the
district
education
boards
in African areas
being
transferred from the Controller
and
Auditor
General
to
the
Ministry
of
Local
Government.
Financial officers
are
appointed
and
gazetted as local
government
inspectors
under
the following
Ordinances-
.Municipalities
Ordinance.
There
are
six municipalities:
Nairobi
City
Council;
Mombasa,
Nakuru,
and
Eldoret
Municipal
Council;
and
Kisumu
and
Kitale
Municipal
Boards.
Some
ten
years ago
when
the
inspectorate
staff
consisted'
of
one
inspector
and
an
audit
assistant, all
the
municipalities employed professional
auditors
to
carry
out
the
annual
audit
of
their
accounts.
The
inspector's visit was
quite
brief, usually lasting only two or
three
days.
With
the
appointment
of
qualified financial officers as inspectors,
the
Ministry has by degrees
under-
II
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