A Senate watchdog committee now wants the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to investigate three firms contracted by Kiambu County Government to collect revenue with questions raised over a potential loss of Sh10 billion between 2014 and 2022.
The development comes after Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu questioned the engagement of the firms by the previous administrations of former governors William Kabogo, Ferdinand Waititu and James Nyoro.
The damning details emerged during the Senate County Public Accounts Committee on Monday examining audit reports for the financial years between 2018 and 2022.
Appearing before the committee chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’, Governor Kimani Wamatangi lifted the lid on how the county may have lost close to Sh10 billion through alleged interference with the systems of some three revenue collection firms contracted by his predecessors.
The county chief told the committee that the three firms – Kiambu Pay, County Pro and Zizi – signed an opaque agreement with the county government to collect own source revenue on their behalf.
He said despite the county paying for the development, and use of the systems, it never got to own the systems as they still remained as properties of those who had been contracted by the county.
“Most of the systems were not intended to help the county collect revenue but to help the owners and beneficiaries of the systems to siphon money from the county. That is my conviction,” said Mr Wamatangi.
Adding more fuel to the fire, the governor revealed that the systems were not only faulty, and erroneous but were intentionally calibrated not to give accurate results.
“We went to Thika slaughterhouse and had a trader pay Sh20,000. The system did not report back the transaction for six hours but with a payment of Sh16,000,” he said.
Subsequently, he said the use of the systems saw the county government fail to meet its revenue target with collections oscillating between Sh2.8 and Sh2.9 billion with the highest ever collected being Sh3.1 billion despite the devolved unit having a potential of realising Sh13.5 billion according to a report by the Commission on Revenue Allocation.
“There is no way there would have been correct reports when the main system of collecting the revenue is doctored to give incorrect results. We have since increased our internal revenue by almost 100 percent from Sh2.9 billion to Sh4.6 billion by bringing in a new system and staff,” said the governor.
Senator Kajwang’ called for the anti-graft agency to commence investigations into the matter, saying Sh10 billion is not pocket change.
“We will be failing Kiambu people if we do not do justice to that matter. EACC let us keep an interest in this matter because it could be a quick win in dealing with people who have been fleecing the public,” said Mr Kajwang’.
“This is money that comes from hustlers. They were stealing from mama mboga , slaughterhouses, and traders. It is completely unacceptable,” he added.
For his part, Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said the owners of the three firms should be summoned to shed light on what they did at the county government.
“It looks like it was a well-organised fraud that they have carried out since 2014 until Governor Wamatangi came in and terminated the contracts,” said Mr Cherargei.
“If there are officers within your administration who are culpable then we can direct them to be surcharged to refund the money that was lost through the companies,” he added.
Dr Wamatangi told the committee that his administration has terminated engagement with the three companies and installed a new enterprise resource planning system for managing services and finances of the county.
“The system belongs fully to the county and no one can come and switch it off or blackmail the county again on the basis of data held in the system or processes,” said the governor.
“The new system will minimise human interaction with money. If you make any payment, the system reverts confirming the transaction is complete. IT does this in real time,” he added.
Nonetheless, he said that the three companies decided to take the county government to court demanding payment of Sh700 million.
“They have billed the county government from 2014 claiming Sh700 million yet they have a contract dated 2021. How does somebody who has renewed a contract in 2021 bill you for services delivered in 2014?" posed Mr Wamatangi.
