By The Weekly Vision
Kitui Governor Julius Malombe has vowed to seal all corruption loopholes allegedly created by her predecessor Charity Ngilu. Governor Malombe claims that during Ngilu’s tenure, the county failed to meet revenue collection targets due to what he terms as laxity in monitoring revenue collection streams and failing to take action against crooked officers who diverted county revenue to their own pockets.
Governor Malombe’s administration has taken issue with former governor Charity Ngilu over her failure to meet revenue targets in the financial year 2021. According to a report by the Auditor General, the County Executive had planned to collect Ksh. 600,504,423 from its in-house source but it only realized Ksh. 316,244,636 resulting in a shortfall of Ksh. 284,259,787 or 47%.
In addition, the County Executive realized an amount of Ksh. 316,244,636 from County own generated receipts which represented a decline of Ksh. 92,040,528 or 23% from Ksh. 408,285,164 were made in the previous year. Additionally, a detailed analysis of expenditures revealed that the County Executive incurred an amount of Ksh. 102,356,454 in the rental of produced assets, an increase of about 847% from the previously reported amount of Ksh. 10,804,285.
Investigations also reveal that under former governor Ngilu’s leadership, physical verification of projects carried out on 26th November 2021 revealed that several construction projects with a contract price of Ksh. 433,920,493 under the Department of Health had stalled and contractors abandoned sites after receiving payments totalling Ksh. 95,896,378.
It has also been discovered that a review of operations of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources revealed that a contractor was awarded a contract for the installation of a solar pump and paid an amount of Ksh. 3,386,549. However, the contractor was not registered as a supplier for the year under audit.
