Senate calls on EACC to probe Sh1.5b fraud in Wajir
By Rawlings, May 22, 2023
A Senate watchdog committee has directed the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to investigate the loss of Sh1.5 billion of statutory deductions from the employees but not remitted in Wajir county.
The move comes even as governor Ahmed Abdullahi(pictured) told senators that he had initiated a process of auditing pending bills that have now reached a staggering Sh7.4billion since June 30, last year.
In what senators termed as possible crime scene in the North-Eastern County, Governor Abdullahi charged that Wajir County has severe pending bills including statutory liabilities.
Appearing before the Senate County Public Accounts Committee chaired by Homa Bay lawmaker Moses Kajwang’, Abdullahi disclosed that he inherited huge pending bills and he has already sought the services of a financial audit firm to review the pending bills.
Wajir has had four governors since the inception of devolution in 2013 in which Abdullahi was the pioneer, Governor Mohamed Abdi who was impeached and was succeeded by Ali Muktar.
Abdullahi told the Kajwang’ led committee that during transition, staff could have created fictitious bills that increased the pending bills to Sh5.5billion. “Wajir has a severe pending bills problem.
The audit report as at June 2022 for the county was about Sh1billion and by the time I received the Assumption of the officer of governor’s report, the pending bills were Sh5.5billion,” said Abdullahi.