• Auditor General Edward Ouko said procurement records were not made available for verification
• Governor says documents were not provided in time because of poor record-keeping of previous administration
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A Senate oversight committee has asked the EACC to probe Nandi county officials over Sh17 million meant for construction of 60 ECDE classrooms.
The Senate County Public Finance and Investment Committee wants Governor Stephen Sang and his finance officials investigated over procurement.
Appearing before the panel to answer to audit queries for the 2017-2018 financial year, Sang failed to table relevant documents to show how his administration got the supplier for the Early Childhood Development Education centres.
“I think this is an issue that the EACC needs to look into because the governor did not comply with the law in terms of providing documents for audit,” temporary chairman Kirinyaga Senator Charles Kibiru ruled.
In his report, Auditor General Edward Ouko said the bill of quantities and engineer’s estimate and procurement records were not made available for verification.
Ouko further noted that materials for construction were supplied directly to the sites without anybody there to receive and verify their quality and quantity.
“In addition, no status report was provided to indicate the level of completion. However, physical verification of the projects revealed that 39 ECDESs had not started.”
The governor said the documents in question were not provided in time for the audit process because of poor record-keeping by the previous administration.
Sang clarified that the total cost for the construction of the ECDE classes was Sh124 million but only those worth Sh16.9 million had not been accounted for by the finance team.
He said that contracts for the projects were awarded to 15 vocational training centres which used students to construct the classrooms.
“We decided to work with 15 vocational centers to help us construct ECDE classrooms. Each of the vocational training centers had instructors and tutors. So the people who were interpreting the BQs were the instructors,” the governor said.
The governor explained some of the schools selected for the classrooms were in far flung areas where infrastructure is poor. In some instances they had to repair roads and ferry water to the sites. This, he explained, delayed the projects.