Senate County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) has asked the anti-corruption agencies to commence investigations into Turkana County government after allegations of corruption amounting to Ksh.5 billion during the reign of former Governor Josphat Nanok currently working at State House.
According to CPAC, the inflated amount was entered into the financial records as pending bills by the previous regime.
Appearing before the CPAC, Governor Jeremiah Lomorukai explained that Nanok, who is the current State House Deputy Chief of Staff, declared a pending bill of Ksh. 7.2 billion in the handing over report.
However, out of the total figure, only pending bills amounting to Ksh2 billion were eligible.
The debt was passed to him by the Assumption to the Office of the Governor Committee as part of the handover notes soon after he had taken oath of office.
Further, the Governor said he established a task force to determine the lawfulness of the bills which determined that bills amounting to Ksh5.2 billion were questionable.
Also, the Governor told the committee that there was an attempt by some claimants to withdraw their bills after he established the task force.
“Once the task force started its work, some individuals came to withdraw their claims,” said Governor Lomorukai even as he promised to cooperate with the EACC to ensure that the culprits are brought to the book.
“I appointed an independent team and facilitated payments to all those bills that evidence showed they were legitimate,” he explained.
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Committee Directives to Governor Lomorukai
CPAC Chairman Senator Moses Kajwang gave Governor Lomorukai one month to forward all the details to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
“You must ensure that fraudsters don’t get a soft landing in Turkana County. There is no way that somebody can put in a fake claim of Ksh. 5 billion and allowed to go scot free,” said Kajwang.
Asked by Senator Edwin Sifuna whether he had been sued because of his refusal to pay the claims, the Governor demurred.
“No one has gone to court to one year later,” said the governor, as he rejected claims that his decision to pay the eligible bills was motivated by politics to reward those who supported his bid and voted for him.
The committee gave the Governor a three-month ultimatum to recruit the chair of the County Public Service Board after it was told the current holder of the office has been acting for the last four months.
Additionally, senior members of staff received imprest amounting to Ksh26 million but had not surrendered more than three years later despite the CEC writing letters of reminder to them.
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Directives to CEC Finance
However, the committee gave CEC Finance one month to recover the imprest with interest failure to which the CEC will be surcharged.
“The responsibility of recovering the imprest is by law vested in the Finance CEC. The clock has started ticking now. If after one month the imprest will not have been recovered, the Senate will direct that the CEC is surcharged,” said Senator Kajwang in his ruling.
Senator Richard Onyonka said the CEC should liaise with the EACC and ensure that officers who have failed to submit the imprest are banned from foreign travel for some time.
Moreover, CPAC wants the EACC to republish the guidelines it issued earlier detailing how counties should manage pending Bills.
