Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

A Senate watchdog committee has directed Laikipia Governor Joshua Irungu to act tough against officials in his administration who allowed fake claims and inflating pending bills by over Sh1 billion.

Lawmakers made the move after the county government said it will not pay pending bills worth Sh1 billion.

The development comes after the county government said that only Sh1.2 billion out of the Sh2.2 billion inherited from the previous administration will be honoured.

When he took over after the August 2022 General Election, Irungu set up a pending bills committee to investigate and verify if the works and services were delivered and whether the bills due were legitimate.

“The committee could only verify pending bills amounting to Sh1.2 billion,” said Irungu.

He said an earlier audit by the Office of the Auditor-General put the eligible pending bills at Sh822 million.

The Governor explained that when he left office in 2017, there were pending bills worth less than Sh400 million but that it had ballooned to Sh2.2 billion in five years.

He said it would be difficult for him to pay for work that did not have proper documentation or the work was incomplete.

“I am ready to pay the eligible pending bills but the other ones will have to wait as their documentation must be verified before any payment is done,” he said.

Administrative lapses

The County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) chaired by Homa Bay MP Moses Kajwang’ demanded to know the action he had taken against officers in the county who might have enabled the falsification of the financial documents.

Kajwang’ told the Governor he must deal with the staff who facilitate such fraud because, on their own, the contractors cannot carry out the schemes.

“You have a Sh1 billion in your books which is manufactured. Maybe you need to start by telling the committee what you have done to some of your officers who facilitated the fraud,” said Kajwang.

He added that the culprits must be identified and forwarded to the EACC.

“It is not enough to say that bills worth Sh1 billion is ineligible, you must demonstrate the administrative lapses that led to this fraud. Contractors cannot do it on their own,” he added.

The Homa Bay Senator said he had not seen any governor taking action against officials who facilitate the making of illegitimate claims.

“We always see new governors coming up with verification committees and saying huge amounts will not be paid but no action is taken on those who made the illegitimate claims,” said Kajwang’.

“Payment of pending bills is not a favour a governor is doing. There are people waiting to be paid while some senior officials are setting up one committee after another. We must discuss how we are going to end this circus,” he said.

Irungu said he had been paying Sh40 million in pending bills every month and Sh478.9 million worth of pending bills had been settled as of April 20 while Sh60 million would be paid before the financial year ends.

“There’s more than meets the eye in this pending bills issue. Some do business today and are paid tomorrow but for others, they have to part with something small to get paid,” said Tharaka Nithi Senator Mwenda Gataya.

Irungu, who was defending the county’s financial books for the 2019/20 financial year, described the fake claims as the “elephant in the room” but asked for more time, promising to act against such actions in future.

“As a county, we have made a commitment to use the Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) in all procurement processes to forestall such mess as witnesses in the pending bill fake claims,” he said.

Installations

The county has also constituted the Mashinani Development Committee whose role will be to monitor the progress of projects.

“Essentially the committee is composed of the users of the project who must endorse by certifying that it was properly done,” said the Governor.

Irungu further revealed that the national government owed the county a total of Sh1.2 billion as contribution in lieu of rates accrued from land occupied by all national government installations.

He said the county had so far collected Sh139 million in the last five years and sought the help of the Senate to get the balance.

“We have started following up on the money but I can tell the committee that asking for the money from the national government is easier said than done,” said Irungu.