Senate grills Lenku on fate of Ngong stadium

Kajiado Governor Joseph ole Lenku and acting County Secretary Samuel Seki when they appeared before the Senate Public Accounts and Investment Committee at Parliament Buildings. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

A modern public library, a stadium and a multi-purpose hall in a secondary school in Kajiado County are at the centre of audit queries by a Senate team.

Governor Joseph ole Lenku appeared before the Senate Public Accounts and Investment Committee (PAIC) to shed light on the projects, with the team now set to visit the projects on the ground.

A report by Auditor-General Edward Ouko that was tabled in the Senate questioned how a company, M/S Tynen Ltd, was paid Sh110.7 million, of which Sh11.2 million was for works that had not been done.

The report also queried how Sh2.8 million was disbursed to the contractor for works that were not certified.

The Sh119 million project, whose contract was issued in 2015, was the brainchild of former Governor David Nkedianye. It was supposed to be completed in three years, which have now lapsed.

The Auditor General further queried the status of the construction of Ngong Stadium, which had stalled a few years ago after a conflict between the contractor and Mr Lenku's administration.

Like the library, the stadium project was awarded to M/S York Investments at a cost of Sh198 million. It was to take four years to complete but it is far from complete. Last year, a task force was formed by Deputy Governor Martin Moshisho to find out why the project had stalled.

The county government has already paid Sh37 million towards the project. The audit query also showed that Sh3 million was paid to M/S Abbey Architects Ltd despite the firm not offering consultancy services.

Construction of the dining hall at Olkejuado High School also caught the eye of the Auditor General. The project, whose total cost is Sh36 million, was awarded to a contactor in the 2017/2018 financial year.

The county set aside Sh15 million but it has already paid Sh17.6million, which is Sh2.6 million above the budgeted amount.

A further query was why the county government spent public funds on a non-devolved function since secondary schools are under the national government.

But Lenku defended himself, saying he had sought a Letter of No Objection from the Ministry of Education.

In the letter dated November 20, 2017, Lenku listed another five projects that he thought needed to be funded using county money. All the projects were to be done in secondary schools.

Lenku was also questioned on Sh159 million that the county government spent on staff domestic travel outside the Integrated Financial Management and Information System (Ifmis) as required in law. The concern was that the money could have been embezzled.

The audit report showed that only Sh87.9 million out of the Sh247.78 million spent on travel was captured by Ifmis.

“There was no evidence that the two sets of records were reconciled,” Ouko said in the report.