Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya put to task over Sh1.6 billion ‘fake’ pending bills

Governor Salim Mvurya of Kwale County (PHOTO: FILE)

Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya was on Wednesday questioned by the Senate Public Accountants (PAC) committee over Sh1.6 billion pending bills raised in the auditor general’s report.

Mr. Mvurya was grilled for more than three hours where he defended his administration over Sh1.6 billion alleged fake pending bills and Sh1.2 billion surplus in auditor general’s report on the 2017/2018 financial year.

The committee headed by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang also questioned the governor over the hiring of lawyers from Kilifi county at Sh18 million and low collection of on-source revenues despite many potential revenue streams.

Mr Kajwang noted that the county had indicated it had Sh1.5 billion pending bills only for the figure to balloon to Sh1.6 billion when a special audit was carried out for the counties.

“We want to understand where the ineligible fake claims of over Sh1.6 billion were cooked,” Kajwang said.

But governor put up a strong defence of his administration saying that the county government has no pending bills even for the last financial year and that nobody has come forward to make any claim.

He explained that the special audit report was prepared when there were ongoing projects and the county government later cleared the bills. The governor rejected the special audit report saying that it did not reflect the real position at the county government.

Assisted by county executive member for Finance Bakari Sebe in fielding the questions, Mvurya said there were no invoices to prove payment because work was going on when the special audit report and the county government cleared all the bills.

“I want to reaffirm that there are no pending bills even for the last financial year. There is nobody who has come forward to demand payment,” Mvurya said.

Senators Millicent Omanga, Fatuma Dullo and Prof Sam Ongeri also accompanied Kajwang. The senators questioned that county over the collection of only Sh200 million revenue asking Mr Mvurya to “pull up his socks.”

However, the governor argued that the Mining Act of 2016 should be operationalised to enable the county to get royalties from the titanium mining.

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