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Bomet Governor Barchok faces fresh EACC probe over Sh1.2bn 'ghost bills'
Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok.
Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok and top county officers are staring at another date with the EACC over glaring procurement irregularities and suspicious payment of pending bills running into millions of shillings in the devolved unit.
This, as senators called on the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to widen its investigations into blatant financial malpractices at the county government, describing the devolved unit as a “den of procurement irregularities”.
The development comes after a Senate watchdog committee unearthed glaring irregularities in procurement, revenue collection discrepancies, irregular award of contracts and variations, as well as fictitious pending bills claims.
The irregular award of tender contracts by the county government has left the devolved unit grappling with pending bills of Sh1.21 billion.
The damning revelations included projects claimed to have been undertaken, yet they lacked a contract number, no dates of award, work done and even local purchase orders (LPOs).
The new revelations come just a month after the governor was arraigned before a Nairobi anti-corruption court to face multiple corruption-related charges, including conflict of interest, acquisition of proceeds of crime, and money laundering.
The county chief faced seven charges stemming from a series of transactions involving the award of tenders to Chemasus Construction Limited by his administration.
Appearing before the Senate County Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday, Governor Barchok was at pains to explain the illegalities and discrepancies with the county government already spending Sh539 million as payment of “suspicious” pending bills lacking supporting documents for work done.
One of the procurement irregularities included the signing of a contract four days after notification of tender award contrary to the law which requires the same to be done after 14 days.
The committee chairperson Moses Kajwang’ described Bomet’s procurement department as a crime scene, accusing county officers of being behind the “ghost invoices” meant to steal money from Bomet people.
“Could there be people trying to lodge false claims to steal from Bomet people? It seems the person who prepared the financial statement is in collusion with the rogue claimants,” said Mr Kajwang’.
“Such cases form the bulk of entries in the pending bills list. Where will the documents come from unless you want to tell us you will go back and cook the same?” posed Bomet Senator Hilary Sigei.
“I don’t know how the entries (without dates and LPOs) made it into the list. I think they were made to paint us badly in the eyes of the Bomet people,” said Prof Barchok.
Also Read: Governor Barchok loses bid to block his arrest, prosecution over alleged conflict of interest
He argued that some of the pending bills claims were still undergoing verification and so had no necessary documentation.
But Mr Kajwang’ hit back asking the governor to explain how the county purports to owe people money without contract documents and even go ahead and have the same on schedule of payments.
“You are trying to defend the indefensible yet almost half of the pending bills list lack supporting documents,” said the committee chairperson.
Hard-pressed, the governor struggled to explain to the committee how much his administration owes contractors and suppliers who have done business with the county.
Despite spending millions in pending bills verification, the county government does not have a pending bills register.
“It is clear you don’t know how much you owe entities and individuals the county government did business with,” said Kitui Senator Enock Wambua.
Cornered, the county boss later admitted to the omissions, saying they do not reflect well on him as the governor.
“Yes, there is time we have disciplined some offices over fictitious claims,” the governor told the committee.
Mr Kajwang’ said the financial statement presented by the county government does not reflect the true picture of the pending bills portfolio, adding that it is therefore impossible to tell whether the Sh1.2 billion amount is the true amount.
“You may complain why EACC is camping in Bomet but it is because of such procurement irregularities. There is clear monkey business being played with most of the contracts just below Sh5 million mark,” said Mr Kajwang’.
“We again ask the EACC to widen its probe to also include the new revelations,” he added.
The county government was also on the spot over glaring discrepancies in revenue collection where despite paying millions to a new firm to collect its own source revenue, the devolved unit recorded a Sh6 million drop in realised revenue in the financial year ended June 30, 2024.
Consequently, the Senate committee recommended for the declaration of David Bunei, the Receiver of Revenue, and Zephaniah Lang’at, chief accountant, during the period under review, unfit to hold public office over their role in the mess.
Further, the county government recorded a Sh600 million increase in wage bill within the financial year, pushing its wage bill to 50 percent of total revenue contrary to the law limiting the percentage to 35 percent.
The county government was also fingered for not disclosing debts owed to Lapfund and Laptrust in regards to unremitted staff statutory deductions.
