• Governor Kinyanjui was questioned on inordinate expenditure of taxpayers’ money on litigation and irregular variation of contracts.
• The senators poked holes in his responses and demanded ‘concrete’ reasons for the under-collection of revenue in key streams.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Ghost workers, bloated wage bill and underperforming own resource revenue collection are taking a heavy toll on development in Nakuru county.
This was disclosed as senators questioned Governor Lee Kinyanjui over inordinate expenditure of taxpayers’ money by his administration on litigation and illegal and irregular variation of contracts.
Kinyanjui had been summoned by the Senate County Public Accounts and Investments Committee to respond to audit queries flagged by former Auditor General Edward Ouko in 2017-18 financial year.
According to the Ouko report, the Nakuru executive spent Sh5.55 billion or 44 per cent of its annual budget while own source revenue dipped by more than Sh140 million.
“It was observed that employee cost balance of Sh5,554,520,308 was 44 per cent of the total revenue of Ksh12,524,886,641, implying that the county government exceeded the 35 per cent set limit as per Sec. 25(1)(b) of the Public Finance Management (County Government) Regulations, 2015,” the report shows.
And while the county government targeted to collect Sh3.28 billion, a review of only five revenue streams showed that the county missed its target (in the streams) by Sh140.40 million.
The streams are reserved parking, house rent, administrative fee, slaughter house and market trade.
The county chief told the committee headed by Senator Sam Ongeri (Kisii) that his administration missed the revenue target due to the prolonged electioneering period which interfered with the collections.
“As a way forward my administration has put measures in place which have resulted into revenue rising from Ksh2,280,522,614 in FY 2017/18 to Sh2,810,570,977.90 in FY 2018-19, an increase of Sh530,048,363,” he said.
Kinyanjui said they spent beyond the ceiling in staff remuneration because of annual salary increment and implementation of the collective bargaining agreement for nurses and doctors.
“Most of the employees were inherited from the defunct local authorities of the County Council of Nakuru, Nakuru Municipal Council, Naivasha Municipal Council and Molo Town Council.
"Further, Nakuru being the former provincial headquarters and having a Level 5 referral hospital, the county government absorbed more staff from the national government,” he said.
But the senators poked holes in his responses and demanded ‘concrete’ reasons for the under-collection of revenue for the key streams.
Senators Samson Cherargei (Nandi), Johannes Mwaruma (Taita Taveta), Fatuma Dullo (Isiolo), Ochillo Ayacko (Migori) and Irungu Kang’ata (Murang’a) said ‘prolonged electioneering’ was an excuse used by governors to justify their administrations' failure to meet revenue targets.
They trashed the governor’s argument that Nakuru was a different county compared to others in terms of big staff numbers due to the number of municipal councils it inherited.
“It is a serious infraction of the law to spend 44 per cent of the budget on salaries when the law caps it at 35 per cent. You broke the law and you should tell us why that happened and what you are doing to reduce the wage bill,” Mwaruma said.
The governor said his administration has concluded employee headcount and discovered 26 ghost workers – retired officers who were still drawing salaries.
Additionally, his government has replaced the County Public Service Board to streamline operations.
On under-collections, Kinyanjui said key revenue streams like housing had been politicised by local politicians out to gain political capital whenever his administrations swings into action.
The governor was also on the spot for the sharp increase in legal fees during the year from Sh4.29 million in the initial budget to Sh97.88 million in a supplementary budget.
“It appears that your county is highly litigious. What are you doing to reduce these litigations? It is either you are offending people or people are offending your county so much,” Ayacko said.
The governor said his administration prepared the supplement and adjusted the budget because the former administration had contracted many private law firms to represent the county.