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Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has raised audit queries about public funds amounting to Sh825 million in Wajir County. Governor Ahmed Ali Muktar’s administration is on the spot over what the auditor terms as a systemic loss of public funds through procurement.

The revelations are contained in Wajir County’s financial statements tabled in the Senate for the year ended June 2020.

In the report, Gathungu accused the county government of violating procurement laws, dishing out tenders to non-prequalified bidders and exaggerating the cost of goods and services.

The county officials, the report shows, split contracts to avoid open tendering in an apparent plot to favour certain companies. Gathubgu observed that some of the companies were less than one year old, with some lacking requisite experience to do works or supply goods or services.

The audiror cited a contract worth Sh247.64 million for procurement of works, goods and services. She said that the county, in a bid to defeat the open process, split the contract to ensure the procurement falls within the request for quotation threshold “in order to defeat competition for the contracts”.

“It was not noted that works of similar nature within the same project locality were split and awarded to different contractors and in some instances to the same contractor,” the report reads in part.

In yet another case, the county procured medical equipment worth Sh29.87 million through a request for quotations.

“However, contracts for the medical equipment were split to defeat the use of open tender. “Verification of the prices charged for some of the items revealed that the prices were highly inflated compared to the prevailing market prices,” the Auditor noted.