Governor Orengo moves to seal graft loopholes as locals grow impatient

Reducing the pending bills, straightening imprests accounting and ensuring agriculture is the pillar of its development are among the strategies the James Orengo-led government is deploying to ensure money is not misappropriated.

These were some of the recommendations made by the Edward Ouko-led taskforce on the county’s financial management system whose findings shook the county.

The findings pointed to rampant abuse of the imprest account, which allowed for possible misappropriation of funds.

While the law requires the county treasury to set a limit on imprest payments into the account, payments were being made that were not petty or emergency funds as required by the Public Finance and Management Act.

This was an irregularity as the transfer of funds from the development and recurrent account was done to circumvent legal payments and without scrutiny by the Budget Controller, creating a window for misappropriation and embezzlement of funds.

According to documents and financial reports from the county government of Siaya seen by the Nation, changes have been made in the management of finances.

The county administration no longer uses the imprest account.

“From February 28 to April 16, no funds were transferred to the imprest account from the recurrent account and no funds were paid directly or withdrawn from the imprest account during the period under review,” read the documents.

Implementing the recommendations

However, there have been questions about the delay in implementing the recommendations proposed by Mr Ouko to seal the loopholes used to steal cash.

The move by the county government comes in the wake of concerns raised by leaders, rights activists, residents and other stakeholders who were reading a lack of seriousness and goodwill on the part of the region's top leadership in tackling corruption.

On pending bills, the report found that there was a disparity in the figure indicating the pending bills.

An analysis of the report of the cabinet sub-committee on pending bills indicated that for a large number of projects, the contract sum at the time of the award exceeded the budget available, a clear case of overcommitment which was irregular.

A scrutiny of the current documents has, however, pointed to a substantive drop in pending bills owed to suppliers and contractors.

“Out of pending bills of Sh959,087,583 as of June 30, 2022, the county government had paid Sh532,900,285 representing 55.56 percent overall payment,” read the documents in part.

Out of development pending bills of Sh450.7 million, a total amount of Sh257.3 million has been paid representing 57 percent and out of recurrent of Sh368 million, Sh78 million has been paid which is 21 percent.

The county government is, however, still struggling with own-source revenue collection.

As of the third quarter, Siaya County had targeted to have collected 79 percent of the targeted revenue which is Sh554,956, 935 as of April 16.

However, it has only managed 49 percent which is Sh342,865,092 representing under collection by 30 percent.

Questions have been raised about the commitment of the top leadership and investigative agencies to fully eradicate the corruption that has stunted development in the county.

Last year, an exposé by the Nation spotlighted senior officials in the Siaya administration over unexplained spending of Sh406 million 12 days before the August elections.

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) had late last year raided the county offices, arrested and interrogated county staff.

And in early December, the EACC revealed in an interview with the Nation that more than 60 Siaya County employees had recorded statements as the agency investigated possible embezzlement of more than Sh1.4 billion dating back to the previous government.

Investigations into these cases

To date, there has been no clear progress in investigations into these cases.

Even before the prosecutions are launched and concluded, the Deputy Governor Mr William Oduol has also presented before the assembly, a 223-page document revealing how junior county staff were allegedly used as conduits by some top officials at the county treasury to steal millions of taxpayers' money through numerous withdrawals from the imprest account.

Some rights groups claim that the weak link are also the agencies mandated to investigate, prosecute and streamline various structures in the county government to make it work.

"EACC, DCI and others that are supposed to fight corruption are the same ones that aid, abet and encourage it while corrupt officials use the crises in the county as an opportunity to collect bribes to look the other way," said Mr Chris Owala, the director of the Community Initiative Action Group-Kenya.

Mr Owala, a governance expert, also doubts whether there is goodwill from leaders from the county in taking direct action against the perpetrators of corruption.

He claimed that the report of the task force led by Mr Ouko was underwhelming because it failed to mention big names that were part of the failed financial system.

"These people making noise about corruption are the biggest beneficiaries of the graft itself and the citizens are just being treated to the theatre of the absurd," said Mr Owala.

He proposes fixing the human resources department because he believes that the root of all the corruption is the flawed process of recruiting and employing county staff.

But Gem MP Elisha Odhiambo, who is a critic of Governor Orengo’s administration, has described the problem as a sign of poor leadership and misplaced priorities.

"Siaya is just showing incompetence in leadership and one that has lost touch with the realities on the ground and the needs of the people," said Mr Odhiambo.

He accused the governor of prioritising a music extravaganza instead of ensuring that serious large-scale farmers are provided with inputs, fingerlings and community health volunteers.

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