A Senate watchdog committee wants investigations opened against former Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu over a suspicious fire incident that destroyed crucial accounting documents relating to Sh10 billion allocated to the county.
The development comes after it emerged that no investigation has been conducted into the incident that happened on July 21, 2019 at midnight.
The Senate County Public Accounts Committee alleged collusion and foul play and directed the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commision (EACC) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to probe the fire incident that occurred nine days to the end of the financial year.
Appearing before the committee that is chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’, former Kitui Finance Executive Ben Katungi, who served between October 2019 and February 2023, revealed how financial documents were moved to a store before the inferno.
He also told the committee how his predecessor, Ms Mary Nguli, quickly resigned immediately after the fire incident to “pursue other interests”.
“I must admit we did not do anything to conduct reconstructive accounting in regard to the Sh9.97 billion in question,” said Mr Katungi, who is currently an economic advisor to current Governor Julius Malombe.
Mr Malombe told the committee there was no evidence to indicate that investigations were carried out. The committee was considering reports by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu for the financial years ending June 2020 and 2021.
The committee directed the governor to write to the DCI and EACC to open fresh investigations within 30 days.
“There is no way an entire allocation for a financial year worth Sh10 billion just went up in smoke. Someone should be in jail,” Mr Kajwang’ said.
Echoing the sentiments, Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo said the money “did not go up in smoke but went into people’s pockets.”
“This was the second mysterious fire during Ngilu’s time as the first one also burnt crucial documents relating to the Ndengu project, which had a lot of irregularities,” he said.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei added: “It is interesting that the two fire incidents had affinity towards only places where financial documents were.”
From left: County Public Accounts Committee members Moses Kajwang’ (Chairperson), Samson Cherargei and Richard Onyonka question Kitui Governor Julius Malombe yesterday.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
The committee also directed Governor Malombe to reconstruct the data lost in the inferno by writing to the National Treasury, Controller of Budget and the Central Bank to access the records within 30 days.
Mr Malombe told the MPs that the Ngilu administration tried to inflate pending bills to Sh2.5 billion but an internal audit revealed that only Sh1.4 billion of the debts were eligible.
The report also revealed a scandal involving the procurement of a ballast crusher at a cost of Sh109 million but generated only Sh1.7 million in two years before it stalled.
Mr Wambua said Sh24 million had been set aside to buy the crusher, only for the budget to be inflated by Sh85 million.
The county government was also on the spot over an unexplained Sh400 million growth in compensation of employees.
Human Resources Director Hellen Mutuku revealed that there was no recruitment that happened during the period as the County Public Service Board was not yet in place.
“Where did this Sh400 million go to if there was no employment? Was it paid to the purported employees or it went to someone’s pockets?” Mr Wambua asked the official.
The audit also revealed that 139 county revenue officers collected Sh12.9 million but failed to bank the funds.
However, the previous administration did nothing to recover the money or take administrative action against the officers.
“You have been in office for more than a year and you are yet to take action. Crack the whip on errant officers,” he said.
