The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has come to the defence of the Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o, whom the Council of Governors (CoG) is accusing of inaccurate and misleading reporting.

Nyakang’o has come under fire from governors after releasing a recent report that put some county bosses on the spot over diverse financial irregularities and illegalities.

In the report, the Controller of Budget raised alarm that some county governments are maintaining multiple bank accounts with some of them operating as many as 300 bank accounts, which raises serious concerns of transparency and accountability in the management of devolved funds.

The report — dubbed County Governments Budget Implementation Review Report — also highlighted that 10 governors had spent zero shillings on development expenditure during the first quarter of 2024/2025.

Speaking to Journalists in Mwingi, Kitui County on Friday, the Commission, through Spokesperson Eric Ngumbi, criticized the governors’ response to the audit findings, urging them to accept accountability and focus on addressing the irregularities pointed out by the Controller of Budget rather than dismissing oversight efforts.

Ngumbi said that the maintenance of such a huge number of bank accounts is one of the indicators for theft of public funds which some Governors are presiding over in betrayal of public trust, even as they agitate for allocation of more money to the counties.

“As the EACC continues to discharge its mandate in the protection of public funds, the Commission urges the Honourable Governors to recognize theft of public funds as an existential threat to devolution and begin to individually and collectively implement accountability measures as routinely advised by oversight bodies,” Ngumbi said. “This includes implementation of the various EACC Reports with key reform recommendations from Corruption Risk Assessment undertaken in 28 counties so far, which the Governors have not implemented.”