• Obado asserts he can account for the Sh1.5 billion under probe.
•The September 2017 fire is said to have affected the procurement store where crucial documents were stored.
Migori Governor Okoth Obado has denied that he is hiding behind a fire incident at the county headquarters to evade Sh1.5 billion audit queries.
Obado told the Senate County Public Accounts and Investment committee he is ready to account for the billions worth of transactions despite the fire destroying crucial documents.
Auditor General Edward Ouko had given the Migori Executive a disclaimer after failing to get vital documents supporting Sh1.5 billion incurred by the county between July 1 and September 24, 2017.
The September 24, 2017, fire is said to have affected the procurement store where the documents were kept.
“The expenditure could not be vouched due to lack of relevant documents and financial records which allegedly got burned leading to limitation of scope,” Ouko said in his 2017-18 report.
Among the documents destroyed were financial documents, tender documents, work tickets, payment vouchers, cash books, bank statements, cheque counterfoils, an assortment of procured materials, equipment, furniture and stationery.
The fire, according to Migori DCIO inquiry, was caused by an electric fault. The report did not blame anybody.
Yesterday, Obado told committee chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang that he can justify how the Sh1.5 billion was spent and that the transaction was above board.
“It should not be seen that the county lost Sh1.5 billion due to the fire incident, there was back up of all documents which had we provided during the audit time, our accounts would have been unqualified,” Obado said.
“The beneficiaries of the payment are alive so it is improper to claim that money has been lost.”
He was granted 14 days to trace payment documents held by the beneficiaries of the cash to properly account for the expenditures.
The senators questioned the manner in which investigations were done after it emerged that security officers on duty on the night of the fire never recorded a statement with the DCI.
“The report (DCI's) looks shallow. On that day there was a security guard in the compound and they could have been investigated and that is not anywhere in the report,” Isiolo Senator Fatuma Dullo said.
Earlier, the governor accused Kajwang’ of citing him during a weekend rally as a bad example of the head of a county where misappropriation of funds is rife.
Ouko’s report showed that the Migori county payroll had employees who had retired and are still on the payroll, taking home hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money.
Some 67 employees who had attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 years were, according to the audit, collectively being paid Sh5.5 million from the county coffers every month.
“Data analysis carried out to authenticate the accuracy and validity of payroll data revealed that 67 employees who had attained the retirement age of 60 years were still appearing in the payroll as at June 30, 2018, and the county was incurring an expenditure of Sh5,511, 975 as compensation in respect of these employees,” Ouko said.
But Obado, who defied the CoG’s directive that governors should no longer honour summons by the Senate committee, said some of the employees who were still serving despite attaining the retirement age were special-category employees protected by the law.
He said they include the deputy governor who is a political appointee, persons living with disabilities who retire at 65 and members of County Public Service Board who the law requires must be above 60 years.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)