A Senate watchdog committee on Tuesday put Kericho Governor Eric Mutai on the spot over the expenditure of Sh425.6 million meant for payment of pending bills by his administration.
Mutai appeared before the County Public Accounts Committee to respond to audit queries for the financial year ending June 30, 2023.
CPAC, chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’, pressed the governor to explain why his administration only spent Sh341.5 million to pay suppliers and contractors.
This is despite the county assembly having approved Sh425.6 million for settlement of the pending bills.
The county was also questioned over irregular expenditure on workshops and retreats.
Notable was the expenditure of Sh3.7 million paid as allowances for officers on retreats in Kisumu, Nairobi and Mombasa.
Singled out was a case citing travel to the Capital to discuss an issue in Kericho.
Kajwang’ described the expenditure as wasteful, calling on the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to swing into action to identify the culpable individuals and recover the money.
“This is a very ridiculous expenditure. How do you go to Nairobi to discuss a collapsed building in Kericho? We recommend a surcharge for the people who benefited from the money,” he said.
Mutai admitted it was wrong for such the 2021 expenditure to be approved, saying he stopped such retreats and no meetings are allowed past Kisumu.
Additionally, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in her report questioned the whereabouts of the remaining Sh84.1 million, as well as a schedule on how the Sh341.5 million was spent.
Gathungu said the county did not provide a list of suppliers and contractors paid, the invoices and completion certificates to show when the projects started, what had been paid and what was pending.
“This was a specific budget to clear the pending bills. How did the county government reallocate the budget? The documents we saw cannot prove where the pending bills originated from,” Gathungu said.
“Once a budget is approved, it must be followed. Where did the county government get the authority to reallocate the budget?”
In his response, Mutai told the committee that his administration re-channelled the budget to other ongoing projects undertaken by the county.
However, when asked by Kajwang’, the governor failed to mention the specific projects to which the Sh84.1 million was committed.
The tough-talking chairman also sought to know why the county executive went against a budget approved by the assembly.
During the period under review, the government had eligible pending bills of Sh526.2 million.
“If the county government asked for Sh425.6 million but only paid Sh341.5 million, then it means the rest of the money was either irregularly re-allocated or stolen. Which one should we go with?” Kajwang’ posed.
Nyandarua Senator John Methu questioned why only Sh341.5 million was paid, yet there was an approved budget of Sh425.6 million.
Richard Onyonka (Kisii) described this as a case of counties approving budgets, only to void them to other payments that benefit their ‘associates.’
“This is what most counties do. They approve higher amounts but pay less with voided transactions going to other shady payments,” he said.
The Committee directed the governor to submit a report of all its eligible pending bills, plus how much was paid and to which suppliers and contractors, within 14 days.
This was after Mutai asked for more time to carry out reconciliation.
The Committee further put the governor to task to explain the whereabouts of Sh47 million National Health Insurance Fund staff contributions.
“This is a classic case of how counties often do deduct employees’ contributions but do not remit the same,” Onyonka said.
However, the governor said they are not holding on to the money, adding it has been remitted to NHIF.