Governor grilled over Sh421 million in stalled projects
Lamu County Governor Issa Timamy.
Lamu Governor Issa Timamy was yesterday grilled by senators on why 75 projects budgeted for by his administration failed to kick off during the financial year ending June 2023.
The damning revelations emerged during a Senate County Public Accounts Committee meeting where the sorry state of projects implementation by the county government was revealed.
In a report by Auditor-General Nancy Gathung’u for the financial year ending June 30, 2023, Lamu County allocated Sh1.29 billion for projects but spent Sh796.3 million.
The under-expenditure led to projects worth Sh421.9 million failing to take off with senators faulting the governor for ineffectiveness, indicating that the delays in the implementation of the projects will only lead to the incurrence of unnecessary costs by the devolved unit.
The audit report indicated that the devolved unit has 75 projects that were budgeted for but failed to start, another 75 ongoing and 48 completed.
Ms Gathung’u said they do not have visibility of the projects with the county government failing to provide an itemised list of the projects.
Chairing the committee, Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said there is a high probability funds could have been lost in the circumstances where the projects were budgeted for but never commenced.
He gave Mr Timamy's 14 days to provide a list of all projects being undertaken by the administration failure to which the EACC should swing into action to investigate any possible financial impropriety being committed by the county.
"The county government has failed to provide an itemised list of the projects and even evidence of the complete projects. The fact that a project is not completed in time means that the value for money is lost," said Mr Cherargei.
Lamu Senator Joseph Githuku termed the audit finding as a serious issue that needs thorough investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to ascertain where the budgeted funds went.
"I am amazed by the amount of money we are talking about here. This unwarranted delays in project implementation shows an ineffective administration that is starving Lamu residents of development," said Senator Githuku.
"I also don't understand why the county government failed to provide a list of the projects it is undertaking to the auditor during auditing. This is a punishable offence under the public audit laws," he added.
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah faulted Governor Timamy, saying funds given to county is not meant to be kept but used in service delivery to the electorates.
"You (the county government) have given us stories that cannot be verified. Tell us how the money was used and where," said Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka.
Delayed disbursement
Appearing before the committee, Governor Timamy blamed the late disbursement of funds to counties by the National Treasury for the delays.
"Late disbursement of funds is affecting us. Like now the last amount sent to counties was for August yet we are now in November," he said.
The county government was also on the spot over failure to support the collection of Sh154.5 million collections with schedules of receipts, specific amounts collected, transaction numbers and names of payees.
As a consequence, Ms Gathungu gave the county an adverse opinion in the receiver of revenue report for the financial year ending June 2023.
The Senate committee threatened to write to ICPAC to take disciplinary action against the county's receiver of revenue Mohamed Abubakar and accountant Joseph Kamau Mwita for leading the county government to have an adverse opinion.
The devolved unit was also fingered for failing to disclose revenue arrears worth Sh630 million in land rates as of June 30, 2022.
However, Governor Timamy maintained that his administration can only trace arrears of only Sh225.7 million.
But the problems kept following the second term governor with the auditor flagging the county government over suspicious voided payments worth Sh78.3 million in transactions that were initiated but later cancelled without any proper justification.
The county government, however, defended itself saying the cancellation of payments was a result of various reasons including system failure, insufficient funds, and accounting errors among others.
Nonetheless, Tharaka Nithi Senator Mwenda Gataya termed the reasons advanced as flimsy, saying there are hidden reasons why voiding of payments by counties is rampant as it is used as an avenue of siphoning public funds through diversion.
"I am not convinced by the reasons being given and I direct that the county government provide a list of all the voided payments within 14 days," added Mr Cherargei.
The devolved unit was also put on the spot over shambolic documents, basic accounting errors, inaccuracies in their financial statements and misclassification of payments.
"This is either negligence of duty or lack of capacity. What could be the reason and what administrative action has been taken?" posed Mr Cherargei.
Senator Githuku added: "This is a sign of incompetence in the administration. Issues of capacity among the senior staff have been flagged even by other committees. The governor needs to do away with the incompetent people in his administration."
"Issues of documentation should not be taking our time here. It just shows officers not taking their work seriously," added Mr Omtatah.
Governor Timamy admitted to capacity issues in the Finance department but said they have begun recruitment aimed at strengthening the department.
Meanwhile, the senators said they will continue championing for counties to get more funds.
"I will do everything within my powers as Lamu senator to ensure Lamu gets more funds and does not lose even a shilling. We want to compete with other counties and ensure Lamu is not left behind," said Senator Githuku.
