A Senate watchdog committee is considering inviting the anti-corruption agency to investigate financial malpractices involving over Sh50 million at the Baringo County Assembly.
The assembly was also faulted for submitting “shambolic” documents to the Senate County Public Accounts committee.
Among the issues raised was the non-procedural variation of contracts for a project amounting to Sh7.4 million. According to a report for the financial year ended June 2020 by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu, the assembly varied the contract cost for building a ramp at the assembly by 241 per cent from Sh3.1 million to Sh10.5 million.
This is against the law, which provides that any contract variation should not exceed 20 per cent of the original value. Further, the variation was not subjected to competitive bidding contrary.
“In the circumstance, management contravened the law and further, there was no confirmation that value for money was obtained from the additional funds,” read the report.
Appearing before the committee yesterday, the county assembly’s management was hard-pressed to explain the variation.
Clerk Winnie Chemase said the contract variation was based on the sum of the entire contract sum of Sh40 million for the construction of the assembly block, hence the variation was only 26 per cent. However, the auditor reminded the clerk that by the time the ramp’s contract was being varied, the construction of the block had been completed.
“We have never come across such a blatant breach of the law. You must provide this committee with justification, failure to which we might just call on the EACC to take up the matter,” said Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, who was chairing the committee.
The assembly was also faulted for delays in completing the assembly block, with the project being behind schedule by five years despite Sh39 million of the Sh40 million already paid.
According to the report, the project was awarded in 2014 and had been expected to be completed in 2015 but an audit inspection in October 2020 confirmed the project was still incomplete. Further, the building had been put to use even before a certificate of occupancy had been issued.
“I have always known that the certificate of occupancy had been issued,” said Speaker Vincent Kemboi in his defence.
More damning breaches of the law by the assembly were in the form of Sh124 million unconfirmed imprest expenditure relating to domestic travel and subsistence allowance, with Sh39.8 million of imprests not surrendered by the MCAs.
However, management insisted that the amount included Sh84.2 million in claims paid to officers and imprest of Sh39.8 million issued and surrendered. Nonetheless, the management was faulted for presenting a schedule and sample of surrender vouchers with no letterhead, and not signed or stamped.
“We failed to provide the documents for the audit because our staff feared touching documents because of Covid-19,” said Ms Chemase.
The assembly is also on the spot over Sh3.7 million in unsupported allowances and mileage claims for the months of March, April, May and June 2020 with the assembly failing to provide evidence of meetings or activities in relation to the expenditures for audit.
There was also a case of incomplete disclosure of a fixed asset register, to which Ms Chemase indicated they have revised the register to include all classes of assets and classify them into appropriate categories.
However, the auditor pointed out to the committee that even the land the assembly is sitting on is not owned by it. The clerk admitted that the land is under the county executive.
The audit report also revealed irregular payments of Sh500,000 and Sh800,000 to the Society of Clerks at the Table and the County Assemblies Forum, respectively, without budgeting for them.
There was also the case of lack of an approved staff establishment as well as over-employment of ward staff by 29, with each ward office having four instead of three staff as prescribed by the Commission on Revenue Allocation.
