NAIROBI: Two petitioners have urged the Senate to order the freezing of funds allocated to the Mandera County government, its assembly and the public service board until a special audit clears the current administration of fiscal improprieties.
The two, Abdullahi Hassan and Abdulsalam Dakane, Thursday appeared before the Senate Finance Committee seeking intervention over what they termed as misappropriation of funds by the county government.
They told the committee that to avoid further misappropriation, the Senate should move in and freeze all non-emergency and non-salary funds from reaching the county, until Governor Ali Roba and his administration are cleared of the allegations.
The petitioners accused Mr Roba's administration of issues ranging from variation of tenders above the contract price, awarding of contracts without following the Public Procurement and Disposal Act and irregularities in hiring of staff.
UNFAIR TREATMENT
"The contracts and projects and other civil works are awarded through nepotism and clannism, thus denying other residents the right to be treated fairly and equally," they told the committee chaired by Kisumu Senator Anyang Nyong'o.
The petitioners also accused the governor of employing direct tendering process in procurement of goods and services, in contravention of the procurement laws.
"In the financial year 2013/2014, the governor and his team procured goods worth Sh49,102,630 through direct tendering, which contravenes the laid-down procurement process," said Hassan.
Mr Hassan alleged before the committee that the tender to tarmac 24 kilometres within Mandera town was given without competitive bidding at Sh2.4 billion. This, he said was double the amount spent by Wajir county government to tarmac a similar section of road.
Hassan said the problem of skewed employment started after the formation of the county public service board, which he argued was not professionally done to ensure unfair representation.
"Two main clans were left out in the composition of the board. This has led to the injustices in the employment. For example, the Degodia constitutes 30 per cent of the entire population as per the last census, but only seven per cent of them are members of county staff," he said.
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