Siaya county business will from next week be transacted from Siaya Agricultural Training Centre to allow for the construction of Sh74.95 million county annex.
Most of the officers especially those working in the office of governor Cornel Rasanga and his deputy will move to Siaya ATC, DG James Okumbe said yesterday.
“We will use offices at ATC to continue delivering services to Siaya people,” said Okumbe.
The project will be done by Abelard Enterprises.
Okumbe was presiding over the ground-breaking ceremony of the complex.
He said they have prioritised the complex construction to heed the government’s directive of ensuring that all uncompleted county headquarters be completed by 2019.
“With just a few months left to the closure of this financial year within which all counties were directed to finalise any construction of county headquarters infrastructure, am glad to be officiating over the ground-breaking ceremony of this project,” he said.
The facility will compliment office space for greater service delivery.
Okumbe clarified that the annex office construction was procured through open tender and awarded to Abeland Construction Limited.
“All the necessary approvals for construction by the national construction and National Environment Management authorities have been secured to ensure compliance to the statutory requirements in the construction processes,” he said.
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He directed project engineer, contractor and project management committee(PMC) to ensure that the largest percentage of the required labour and basic construction materials are sourced form Siaya and business persons.
“The Siaya citizens now have to be vigilant and participate actively in the construction processes. They should also trade carefully and make responsible use of their wages in this era of HIV/AIDS.” Okumbe said.
The ceremony was also attended by the General Manager of Abelard Enterprises Silvester Omondi who promised to source more than 70 per cent of labour from residents.
“We have gone through contract and we are assuring the public and the county government that in the next 24 weeks the project will be complete and will ensure all the standards and specifications in the Bill of Quantities is adhered to,” Omondi said.
An audit report by the Auditor General last month querried why the County Government of Siaya initiated the construction of county headquarter as its flagship project in 2013/2014 financial year, yet the proposed project has not fully been implemented.
Several other counties are also in the race to beat the deadline. Many of which had stalled for various reasons inluding shortage of funds.
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