Kenya governors put to task over their expenditure

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero addresses the Senate Committee of Public Accounts and Investment to answer charges of corruption allegations in his County at Parliament Buildings Nairobi. (PHOTO: MOSES OMUSULA/ STANDARD)

The Senate Public Accounts and Investments Committee has questioned governors over expenditure under their watch.

Governors Evans Kidero (Nairobi), Hussein Dado (Tana River), Amason Kingi (Kilifi) and Julius Malombe (Kitui) appeared before the Kisumu Senator Anyang Nyong'o-led watchdog team to answer to audit questions over spending in the 2013-14 financial year.

Auditor General Edward Ouko in his report raised a number of red flags ranging from unexplained expenditure to flouting of procurement rules, among other forms of financial improprieties in all the 47 counties.

Dr Kidero was asked to explain irregular allocation of two parcels of land to private developers. In his report, the auditor general said the allocation did not appear transparent.

The city boss defended his administration saying: "The High Ridge Health Centre and Nanyuki Road stores and Depot land were allocated to private developers three years before I came to office."

According to the report, the health centre was demolished before the land was taken away. The Nanyuki Road store land that was reserved for road maintenance materials, was demarcated and 1.227ha hived off and allocated to a petroleum firm.

Kidero explained that after he took over, he wrote to the National Land Commission on March 2014, seeking their intervention over the matter. When Busia Senator Amos Wako sought to know what became of the issue after that, Kidero said he has not received any communication from the commission since. He said the matter was contested in court, but his administration lost.

Kidero was hard pressed to explain why the administration was not remitting the statutory deductions to the relevant authorities such as National Social Security Fund and National Hospital Insurance Fund.

"When I came to office, the amount owed by the defunct city council to the bodies as statutory deductions amounted to about Sh10 billion. We are negotiating with the authorities as what we are paying them is not sufficient. We are struggling to pay them because we have limited ability," Kidero explained.

Mr Dado, who earlier appeared before the committee, was asked to explain why there was a variance between the revenue recorded in the county's bank reconciliation statements.

"During the said financial year, the county executive didn't prepare bank reconciliation statements. The system in use then could not generate a cash bank for each account. But we have addressed the challenges since then as required," he said.

Mr Kingi was asked to explain why his administration spent Sh7.4 million on catering services for various hospitals without establishing the facilities as procuring entities as well as establishing tender, evaluation, and inspection and negotiation committees for the entities. Kingi produced the required documents for all the audit queries.

Previous sessions of the committee have been greeted with high drama, with some governors leaving the select team in stitches with their jokes and others getting mildly agitated by the tough questions.

For instance, when Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto appeared before the committee last Friday, he turned up with insufficient documents and seemed not to take it lightly that he was turned away.

"It should be your responsibility as a committee to photocopy all the documents that I brought before you. Or you should have notified me earlier that your team has no capacity to photocopy, I would have multiplied the documents in a matter of minutes," he said, sparking laughter.

Prof Nyong'o asked Mr Ruto to go away and schedule another appearance. He is yet to do that.

"Our role is oversighting. Whatever documents you bring to this committee is entirely your responsibility," Nyong'o said.

For Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka, the message given to him after having a date with the committee was music to his ears. The senators directed that the county government be refunded close to Sh19 million. The money was used to pay debts owed to contractors working on projects previously under the national government.

Mr Ouko had raised questions over Sh11,796,898 paid to a contractor working at the Bungoma County Hospital paediatrics ward and another Sh7,220,651 paid for Kopsiro Modern Health Centre.

"Both projects were started by the national government. The contractors were not ready to hand over the projects until they were paid the pending bills. We stepped in to clear the bills so that the facilities that were underutilised could be put into use," he said.

Nyong'o directed the county government and the auditor general, through the committee secretariat, to write to Treasury, to get the money back.

"The letter to the National Treasury should be accompanied by supporting documents so that the county gets a refund of the expenses they incurred in paying the pending bills," the Kisumu Senator explained.

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and his Marsabit counterpart Ukur Yattani's appearances before the team left them with joy, after they produced all the relevant documents to answer to the queries.