Governor Alfred Mutua has accused Machakos
MCAs of impeaching the deputy governor to hide their own corrupt dealings.
Deputy governor Francis Maliti was last week impeached on grounds of gross misconduct and incompetence.
The MCAs led by Matungulu's Cosmas Masesi said Maliti had failed to discharge his duties during his time at the helm of the finance docket.
Masesi said under Maliti's watch the county had failed to raise its revenue target of Sh1.7 billion.
However, Mutua said there has been a push by the leadership of the county assembly to blackmail the executive.
The county boss said that in the past few weeks, reports of misuse of financial resources, fake payments, and corrupt activities in the assembly have been brought to his attention.
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In the latest
2015/16 financial year audit
report, Edward Ouko flagged numerous foreign trips made by MCAs. Further, he raised queries of leaders who paid themselves double per diems.
According to the report, a travel agency contracted to provide MCAs with the full package for one of their trips including airport transfers,local transport and full accommodation was overpaid by Sh24 million.
"Recommendation to recover the over payment from concerned MCAs and staff of Sh24 million is yet to be implemented," Ouko said in the report.
Mutua said following the matter, the deputy governor on November 2 wrote to the assembly asking them to provide proper financial statements on their expenditure and other relevant financial documents.
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When asked to provide the information, a section of the MCAs moved a notice on November 6, 2018 to impeach Maliti.
"Why is the county assembly speaker and leadership afraid of releasing their documents? I truly believe that majority of members are not even aware that they are being used to cover up corrupt activities and will probably go down with the corrupt leaders," Mutua said.
The MCAs in their impeachment motion claimed the deputy governor does not have a degree in finance and was unsuitable to head the treasury docket.
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Other grounds for Maliti’s
impeachment was failure to report to the house on the implementation of the Annual County Budget.
They also cited the official's failure to implement the County Bursary Fund and the Machakos County Health Management Fund.
However, Mutua said Maliti was within his rights to demand for an explanation on the MCA’s expenditure.
"As part of that responsibility, the deputy governor has to ensure that funds utilised by the executive and assembly are spent within the law and accounted for,” he said.
The governor said that he has written to the Auditor General to send a team to the assembly for a special financial audit.
"After his report is ready, I will study it and take proper action including forwarding it to the EACC and DCI to take appropriate action."
"In the meantime, Maliti continues to serve as CEC, finance and revenue collection," Mutua said.