• He said his government cannot waste tax payers funds on projects that are not genuine.
• “You can’t compel me to pay for suspicious projects. I don’t want to be crucified by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption commission,” he said.
West Pokot Governor John Lonyangapuo on Wednesday told the Treasury to stop pushing counties to pay for suspicious projects.
Speaking outside his office, Lonyangapuo said an initial audit unveiled some incomplete projects and said his government would not pay for them.
He ordered a fresh audit of pending bills.
You can’t compel me to pay for suspicious projects. I don’t want to be crucified by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption CommissionGovernor John Longyangapuo
“I have ordered a fresh audit of pending bills projects to ascertain genuine projects. The recent audit revealed a lot of projects that were not genuine. The projects undertaken by the former regime were marred by corruption, inflation of figures and weren’t completed,” he said.
He said his government cannot waste taxpayers' funds.
“You can’t compel me to pay for suspicious projects. I don’t want to be crucified by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission,” he said.
“My government will not pay some of the projects since I don’t want to violate the Constitution. Most of the work done is not equivalent to what was allocated," he said.
Meantime, county staff complained that they have not been paid their salaries.
One worker said she is unable to report to duty for lack of transport.
“I use Sh200 per day as transport but I am unable to reach work since we haven't been paid," she said.
Longyangapuo urged staff to be patient for two weeks an wait for the audit to be completed.
“I understand county staff have not even been paid January salary, within two weeks funds will be released,” he said.
He said lack of funds has caused his opponents to call him bad names and say he is corrupt.
Lonyangapuo defended his recent launch of a Sh400 million bursary fund kitty, saying he had not diverted any funds.
“Some of my opponents have called me ‘Fuliza’, saying that I have misused funds meant to pay workers. This is untrue since we have different vote heads and you cannot transfer funds from one vote head to another,” he said.
(Edited by V. Graham)