• Projects worth Sh601m stalled or pending.
•Auditor General flags Sh47 million for casual wages.
Lamu Governor Fahim Twaha has defended the Sh3 million used during his swearing-in, saying the amount was reasonable.
He was responding to a story published by the Star, based on the Auditor General’s report, which showed queries over the use of Sh2.4 billion. Twaha said all the budgetary requirements came from guidelines given by the Ministry of Devolution.
“It was the ministry that constituted the swearing-in committee and approved the amount of money to be paid as allowances,” Twaha said.
Through the Lamu county director of communications, Charity Mwai, Twaha said the committee had suggested that Sh5 million be spent on the event but he cut the cost to Sh3million.
Twaha said the Sh3 million swearing-in budget money was way below what other counties spent.
“The ceremony was a big event and people had to travel from all over the county. Lamu is vast and with great logistical challenges. All these issues were factored in determining the budget for the occasion,” he said.
The executive had been criticised for purchasing the governor’s Sh13 million Nissan Patrol through direct procurement.
The county defended the claims, saying the governor’s official car was involved in an accident a few weeks after he took office, and the vehicle was taken for assessment by insurance.
“This was an emergency but still the car was bought from a government authorised dealer. A special committee went to negotiate with the dealer and was able to get a fair price for the vehicle,” Twaha said.
He maintained that the county is open to the scrutiny of all the files and vouchers, especially in relation to the Sh26 million in a conditional grant for the Kenya Development Support Programme.
The audit report had indicated that the county failed to account for the money.
Twaha also confirmed that projects valued at Sh601 million had not kicked off because when they took office, they had to take stock of the projects that had been proposed, initiated and at which level of implementation before initiating new ones.
“The procurement process is long and getting a project approved and funds released could take up to two months or more,” he said.
Twaha, who unseated Issa Timami, said disbursement of funds from Treasury is a process and in most cases the system is slow.
The Auditor General had also flagged Sh47million paid for casual wages, without a record of how temporary employees were hired.
Employees' compensation of Sh1.03 billion was also a major issue.
“We inherited a workforce that was employed by the previous regime, there was no way we would arbitrarily sack people to reduce the workforce because this is against the labour laws,” Twaha said