Senators want the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to probe circumstances under which Wajir county deducted Sh1.5 billion statutory staff levies and failed to remit to relevant agencies.
Members of the oversight team – County Public Accounts Committee – chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’ directed the anti-graft agency to investigate the anomaly.
As a result of the remittance, the Wajir Governor Ahmed Abdullahi said on Thursday that workers' unions have taken the county to court.
“We have been taken to court by the unions for non-payment of the statutory liabilities including pensions, gratuity, saccos deductions and standing orders of employee loans. We will look for a way of making the payments,” he told senators.
The county is in the process of vetting Sh7.4 billion pending bills Sh7.4 billion, some of which Governor Abdullahi believes are suspect. He blamed the ballooning bills to workers whom, he said, could have sneaked fake invoices.
“Wajir has a severe pending bills problem. The audit report as at June 2022 for the county was about Sh1 billion and by the time I received the Assumption of the Officer of Governor’s report, the pending bills were Sh5.5 billion. Since then, more contractors have been coming with documents,”Abdullahi said.
“If an audit has been done as of June 30, and the liability is Sh1 billion, election happens in August, and governors are sworn in the middle of August, how do I get a report that the pending bill is Sh5.5 billion? It is either that the assumption of office report is completely fraudulent or the audit has understated the liabilities.”
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah demanded: “But we are not going to have to bail out Wajir and give golden parachutes to those who plundered the county a chance to land in Seychelles and enjoy life, Wajir will be bailed out, but those responsible must go to jail.”
“I think EACC should take up this matter especially on statutory deductions. This is money; it was deducted and not remitted. This should be an open and closed case, within no time people must be prosecuted.”
He rooted for an urgent verification of the bills by both the anti-graft agency and Office of the Auditor General with a view of holding accountable those who superintended the rip-off.
“A county like Wajir to have those kind of pending bills that rival Nairobi. This is not acceptable. The people of Wajir need protection, when you look at the figures, Wajir is going to come out a county that may need a bail out,” Omtatah said.
He told senators when he took office, he found Sh1.5 billion invoices that had not be settled.
Kajwang’ demanded a through audit, adding that statutory liabilities should be dealt with first.
“We want you to be very bold in dealing with this issue, but we must order that the first charge be the Sh1.5 billion statutory deductions that was deducted from employees and not remitted,” Kajwang’ said.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said the Sh1.5 billion is public theft and that heads must roll and suspects prosecuted.
“This is outright public theft. EACC must seize of this matter. This should be forensic audit with possibility of prosecution. On statutory deduction. This should be an open and closed case,” he said.
