Siaya MCAs have given finance executive Richard Mungla and chief officer Hezron Mariwa 30 days to explain missing Sh105 million or they be impeached.
The assembly's finance committee on Wednesday said the cash meant for the project management committee cannot be traced.
The team said only Sh32 million out of the Sh137 million collected by the project management committee can be accounted for. The cash was disbursed to the wards for development.
Committee chairman Peter Oduor recommended that Mungla institutes measures to recover the money. He said ward administrators who will be found to have misappropriated funds meant for the payment of PMCs will not be spared.
The Kwala MCA directed that all PMC payment claims at the finance department be halted until a comprehensive review is done.
It is not the first time the county assembly is questioning PMC cash on suspicion it might have been misappropriated.
In the 2018 report seen by the Star, the response through the then chief officer Dan Okoth said due to liquidity constraints in the financial year 2016-17, PMC cash was diverted to pay contractors.
Okoth said the accounts would be reconciled and cash deducted from PMC payments would be refunded by May last year. No such reconciliation has been done.
Efforts to get a comment from Mariwa were unsuccessful. He neither picked calls nor replied to text messages sent to his phone.
Yembo East MCA Francis Otiato wondered why the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has been reluctant to execute county government officials over corruption.
Otiato said Governor Cornel Rasanga has been put on the spot by queries raised by the Auditor General yet EACC "has not bothered to investigate" the claims.
“We have seen governors, some in their first term like Waititu, being locked up over audit queries. What is so unique with Siaya that governor is untouchable,” Otiato asked.
He said Siaya has cases of misappropriation of funds dating back to 2013 which have not been investigated.
The MCA said the county assembly will question the use of funds to ensure they are put into good use.
“We are going to ask the Director of Public Prosecutions Nordin Haji to tell us where the warrant of arrest issued against Rasanga is and what happened to it,” Otiato said.
edited by peter obuya
