Lusaka to audit payroll, pending bills and scholarship plan

Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka has formed three committees to audit human resource, pending county bills and scholarships.

He says each committee has five members who have been given two weeks to present their reports, which will inform his next move.

Lusaka spoke to the press on Thursday at the Bumula Subcounty Hospital after paying an impromptu visit to inspect the medical facility.

“As per last week, reports show that the county has more than Sh1 billion in pending bills.

"We want to audit and make sure that the bill is for genuine work done for the county. We are not witch hunting anyone, we just want to work properly,” he said.

The governor said the formation of the three committees was necessary, to help weed out ghost projects.

He said only those projects that were genuine and followed the right procedures will be paid.

Lusaka further said there was a mass employment of causal workers towards the end of the campaign period.

He said the move was a suspicious and he wants to ensure that all casuals that were employed are rightfully qualified for the jobs.

“All we are doing is to verify that everyone that was absorbed as a casual worker is qualified and that the correct procedures were followed.

"A good number of the casual workers have suffered for the past four years and the court ruled that they be absorbed, we want to give them first priority," the governor said.

Lusaka said the committee tasked to audit the scholarship programme is to give reports on the actual number of beneficiaries and the total amount needed to offset the pending scholarship bills.

He also promised to equip and decongest the Bungoma County Referral Hospital.

“I have seen that the hospital is in good shape. We will continue to equip it as a way of decongesting our county referral hospital,” Lusaka said.

This was the governor's first public visit since he was sworn in last week.

He said he will be doing impromptu visits to facilities to keep them in check.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)