• According to the 2018-19 audit report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, the county paid out Sh17.58 million to contractors for construction of the plants.
• An audit report shows that the construction of 31 plants and installation of electricity at a total cost of Sh260 million have stopped.
Image: FILE
Dairy farmers in Uasin Gishu have been dealt a heavy blow after buildings to house milk cooling plants donated by the national government stalled.
An audit report shows that the construction of 31 plants and installation of electricity at a total cost of Sh260 million have stopped.
The plants are among the projects valued at more than Sh750 million initiated by the county government that have stalled and taxpayers’ money is at stake.
According to the 2018-19 audit report by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, the county paid out Sh17.58 million to contractors for construction of the plants.
Similar payments were made in the previous year totalling Sh169.48 million, pushing the aggregate expenditures incurred on the plants to Sh187.07 million.
The works were contracted after the Ministry of Agriculture undertook to supply milk coolers to all counties. The recipient county governments were to construct the buildings to house the machines and instal electricity.
“Available information indicates that construction of 13 milk cooling plants contracted at Sh36.45 million and for which payment totaling Sh40.88 million was made had stalled. The contracts were thereafter terminated and tenders for the works re-advertised in October 2019.
"In addition, the building of 18 plants were contracted to various parties at an aggregate cost of Sh89.15 million, with Sh66.86 million of the amount paid by June 30, 2019, but the works had not been completed.
“For this reason, the milk coolers supplied by the national government for the plants have not been put to use. No plausible explanations have been provided by management for these anomalies,” reads the report.
“in view of the delays in completion or commissioning of the milk projects, their purposes have not been achieved. In addition, no value for money has been obtained on the expenditure totaling Sh187.07 million already installed.”
Further, the report puts the county governments on the spot for splashing Sh11.19 million for installation of electricity at 25 plants. But a review of the records showed that only 11 plants had electricity, leaving a balance of 14.
“The investments in these projects, therefore, have not been managed in a prudent way as required of management in Section 153(1) (1) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012."
Further, nine other projects contracted at a total cost of Sh372.71 million had stalled with Sh79.57 million already pumped into them.
Gathungu faulted also faulted the county government for skewed hiring of staff where the people from the dominant community dominated the positions.
As of June 2019, the county had 3, 164 employees out of whom 2,464 or 79 per cent were from the dominant community.
During the year under review, the County Public Service Board recruited 354 new staffers out of whom 331 or 94 per cent were from the dominant ethnic community.
“The management, therefore, acted contrary to Section 65 (e) of the County Government Act, 2012, which states that in selecting candidates for appointment, the CPSB shall consider the need to ensure at least 30 per cent of the vacant posts at entry level are filled by candidates who are not from the dominant ethnic community in the county,” it says.
The county also spent about 38 per cent of its budget on salaries and wages contrary to provisions of the PFM Act that caps such expenditures at 35 per cent.
The report further shows that during the year, the county failed to spend Sh232.68 million disbursed by the Kenya roads board for maintenance of county roads.