Governor Sonko forms ten-member committee to oversight pending debts

A 10-member committee has been named to scrutinise all the Sh60 billion pending debts at City Hall.

The debts are for goods supplied and services rendered over the years, even to previous regimes.

In letters seen by the Metropolitan, Governor Mike Sonko has appointed Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Director General Halakhe Waqo, Public Procurement Oversight Authority Director General Maurice Juma, the principal secretary of Public Works, Paul Mwangi, the acting CEO of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants if Kenya, Edwin Makori.

The letter dated January 31 and signed by the acting county secretary, Leboo Morintat, also includes the names of the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims and the Auditor General. The other four are the secretary general of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, the Nairobi county clerk, Jacob Ngwele, former Law Society of Kenya boss Erick Mutua, and Patrick Lumumba, the director of the Kenya School of Law.

AUTHENTIC DEBTS

“It has been decided that you will be nominated to the Pending Bills Committee. It is believed that the committee will immensely benefit from the output of your organisation,” reads part of the nomination letter.

This comes in the wake of a petition filed in the High Court by the governor last month, stopping the payment of Sh60 billion owed to creditors at City Hall. Mr Sonko said that upon assumption of office, he was welcomed by huge debts that had accumulated over the years.

“City Hall wants to ensure that all debts to be paid are authentic and accurate to avoid false claims. We will, however, make sure we clear the bills,” stated Sonko.

Sonko observed that the 10-member committee was a step towards enhancing City Hall’s finance management system and improving its debt management.

According to Sonko, those who were nominated were people of ‘good standing’ and had a good reputation. They would also enable the county to pay genuine claims. The nominees are expected to communicate with the governor before the committee’s work commences. The group will be charged with scrutinising and verifying the authenticity of the bills.

The deputy director of communication and senior press chief officer, Elkana Jacob, said Mr Sonko was concerned about revenue collection since a huge chunk of it was expected to go to the payment of pending debts.

FIGHTING GRAFT

Elkana said other individuals such as former police commissioner Hussein Ali, former DCI boss Ndegwa Muhoro, former anti-corruption commission official Swaleh Slim, and former minister Franklin Bett would assist the committee.

“Governor Sonko is keen on eradicating graft and enhancing revenue collection and to that effect several suspects have been arrested over graft claims,” he added.

In January, the Sonko-led county government went to court claiming that it could not pay the contractors Sh60 billion without ascertaining that the claims were legitimate. Through the county’s lawyer Elias Mutuma, the city county said that it would require at least six months to carry out an internal audit before embarking on a process to pay contractors.