Counties Still Blowing Billions on Unexplained Projects and Services

Auditor General’s 2016/17 report tabled on Wednesday by Senate Majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen has shown that counties are still squandering funds on stalled projects, dubious payments, and unexplained services.

The AG’s report conspicuously shows how fund misappropriation is denying the public the much-needed support through spending on unsustainable projects and non-progressive ventures. Majority of county procurement activities cannot be accounted for since they lack the appropriate documentation.

Machakos county, for instance, could not provide the necessary documentation to support its reckless spending. A total of 42.5 million shillings was spent in 2014 under Dr. Alfred Mutua’s rule for the supply, delivery, installation, and commissioning of 250 greenhouses that cost 170,000 shillings each.

The report says that in June of the same year, an advance payment of 17 million shillings was made followed by 10.6 million shillings, which was paid in the last financial year. There were no records provided for the project regarding the number of greenhouses supplied and installed, not even delivery noted.

Also questioned was the county spending of 91.2 million shillings as legal fees for law firms charged to other operating expenses. Apparently, one of the owners of the law firms was a county official whose company received 32.6 million shillings.

In Vihiga county, executives under Governor Moses Akaranga could not ascertain the spending of 809,602,530 million shillings on goods and services. The audit says 10 million shillings and 346 million shillings spent for Itando Talent Centre rehabilitation and staff allowances, respectively could not be fully accounted for.

Busia county, on the other hand, spent only 2.3 billion shillings of the 2.9 billion shillings allocated by the county executive. This led to the government’s failure to implement projects worth 661.3 billion shillings denying the public a chance to enjoy the services they were entitled to. The county is also on the spot over 31.5 million shillings paid to Sydcas Construction to put up a maternity and newborn unit at the Busia County Referral Hospital, whose method of construction is also under scrutiny.

Nairobi County government is also among the counties that have squandered lots of funds. For instance, it paid 600 million shillings to lawyers but it lacks the explanation as to the scope of work done by the firms.

Meanwhile, in Nyamira County, 984,000 shillings was spent to send the deputy governor to the United States to learn how to operate a firefighting machine, something which not only sounds ludicrous but also one that could be offered locally.

Kenneth Lusaka, amidst other queries of funds misappropriation in his county also is sent eight Public Service Board members to the East and Southern Africa Management Institute, ESAMI in Uganda for training. Again, the Kenya School of Government could have offered the training and the 5 million shillings spent geared for something else.

The county also spent 35 million shillings for Chwele slaughterhouse, an abattoir that remains morbid with the audit report saying it “is not functional despite being complete, casting doubt on feasibility studies having been conducted”.

Bungoma county hasn’t been left out. It spent 1.1 billion shillings to upgrade Misikhu-Naitiri-Brigadier road, a contract that was awarded to a local company. The contractor is nowhere to be found even after being paid 217 million shillings for 20 percent completion of the project.

Wycliffe Oparanya of Kakamega county was queried for failure to keep an asset register of its property worth more than 4.9 billion shillings. The county, amidst other fund misappropriation issues, was faulted for spending 11,836,800 shillings paid to Toyota Kenya for 48 motorcycles valued at 246,600 shillings each. The spending was not budgeted for.

Kajiado county spent 119.9 million shillings for the construction of a modern library, where Tynen Limited was contracted but as of November last year, nothing had been done at all.

These aren’t the only counties that have wasted funds. Nearly all of them have several financial discrepancies showing just how much corruption carries in counties across the country. Meanwhile, the common citizen continues to suffer.