By The Weekly Vision
The Governor of Kisumu Anyang’ Nyong’o could soon find himself answering queries over alleged procurement deals which led to the loss of public funds. The governor’s office is on the radar after revelation emerged that fictitious payments in the guise of domestic travels occurred under his watch during the financial year 2021/2022.
The office is alleged to have paid out Ksh.178,231,080 for domestic travel and subsistence allowance but some of the payments do not fall under those two categories. A report reveals that Ksh.40,331,867 was transferred to KCB – Kisumu
but whose payment details cannot be traced. Ksh. 11,436,490 is also indicated as having been remitted to the Kenya Revenue Authority for income tax obligations, the office of the governor could not explain why PAYE should be paid through the domestic travel and subsistence account. Further, the expenditure includes an amount of Ksh.54,616,445 paid to 20 members of staff as daily subsistence allowance, where some received amounts ranging from Ksh.1m to Ksh.13m per person in (2021/2022).
The governor’s office in a quick rejoinder claimed that the huge imprests had been taken out by team leaders on behalf of a group of employees and officers on official duty, they cannot however provide any supporting schedules for the group activities. In addition, Ksh.301,000 was paid to a travel firm for air tickets for staff, copies of air tickets, boarding passes, attendance lists and activity reports cannot be traced. Similarly, Ksh.510,850 was paid to 2 firms for the provision of air tickets, the two firms are not on the prequalified list of suppliers.
The expenditure also includes Ksh.4,491,100 paid for attendance to workshops whose invitation letters and workshops, signed schedules to confirm attendance reports and minutes of deliberations held cannot be tracked.
In addition, a payment of Kshs.122,650 paid during the year was not supported by invoices for the year 2018/2019, however, the amount had not been included as a pending bill during the year 2020/2021. Further, documents including copies of air tickets, duly signed and rubberstamped passports and boarding passes cannot be traced. Included in the domestic travel and subsistence is a directly expensed imprest of Kshs.2,406,416 issued to an officer from the Department of Governance and Administration to facilitate a trip to India and undertake community engagement in the Nairobi Liaison Office on village council roles in road maintenance.
The office of the governor did not explain the rationale for funding activities of the Department of Governance and Administration. The office also entered into a contract to carry out the fencing and equipping of the tree nursery and production of 6,000 bamboo seedlings at a cost of Ksh.3,499,200 during a physical inspection carried out in July 2022, it was revealed that there was no fence and bamboo nursery at the earmarked site.
