Siaya Governor James Orengo has raised the alarm over infiltration of crooked ‘tenderpreneurs’ at the county offices where they operate with impunity like the infamous Mafia gangs from Sicily.

He said the tenderpreneurs have infiltrated almost every section in the county to the point that they access virtually all documents and transaction in real time.  The County boss was speaking during a public participatory meeting with the civil society yesterday on how to implement the recommendations of a taskforce chaired by former Auditor General Edward Ouko on the county’s financial operations.

Orengo said for the county to propel, the clique must be dealt with and sanity restored in both the Finance and Procurement dockets that are widely affected. “To free the energy of this county, we must deal with these characters,” he noted. Governor also expressed concern that the “mafia” had agents and were trailing the movement of documents within Finance and Procurement.

“The worst thing is that they have agents and every single paper that is processed, even at the approval stage, is always in the public domain,” he lamented.  He ordered the finance department to make public all the tender awards and if possible, the reasons for the choice of the winners. Orengo called on county employees to perform their tasks as expected, lamenting that some have to be pushed to perform.   He gave an example of the revenue department which, he said was performing below par but when the taskforce was formed, revenue collection suddenly improved.

                                                -KNA