Governors Lonyangapuo, Khaemba questioned on audit issues

Bloated wage bill, late provision of financial documents and use of direct procurement yesterday haunted West Pokot Governor John Lonyangapuo and his Trans Nzoia counterpart Christopher Khaemba.

The county bosses appeared before the Senate’s County Public Accounts and Investments committee where they were questioned over the 2019-20 audit queries.

Lonyangapuo, who is seeking to retain his seat, was put to task to justify the use of direct procurement for services by his administration.

According to the report by auditor general Nancy Gathungu, the county spent Sh14.96 million on the hiring of a road equipment.

“Audit review of expenditure records on hiring of equipment revealed that payments totalling Sh14.96 million in respect to hiring road construction equipment were not supported,” the report reads.

Yesterday, the governor said that his officers relied on provisions of public procurement and asset disposal act that allows state bodies to use restricted tendering for tenders not exceeding Sh6 million.

But the senators trashed the explanation after auditors stated that the county did not provide justification for the move.

“The method is not in dispute but the justification needs to be provided,” Migori Senator Ochilo Ayacko said.

Lonyangapuo delegated his finance chief office to respond to the query, but she too was unable to explain the rationale behind the direct procurement.

“I just want to make a request that you give us the additional time and we will be able to provide necessary documents,” she said.

Ayacko gave the governor 14 days to provide necessary documents to explain the use of restricted tendering or the committee recommends prosecution of the concerned officers.

Lonyangapuo was also put to task to explain why his administration has failed to adhere to the 35 per cent procurement limit of the county resources, on personnel emolument.

The report shows that the county’s wage bill has hit 43 per cent of the total county revenue.

This is contrary to Regulation 25(1)(b) of the Public Finance Management (County Governments) Regulations, 2015 which limits the county executive’s expenditure on wages and benefits to not more than 35 per cent of the total revenue for the year.

They blamed the huge spending on bloated staff inherited from the former councils and subsequent employment of more staff to bridge the skill gap.

The panel gave the West Pokot governor  a two-week ultimatum to give a breakdown on how his administration will reduce the ballooning wage bill.

For Khaemba, the nine-member panel threatened to recommend prosecution of his officers due to frequent delays to provide documents to the auditors.

During the meeting, the committee established that Trans Nzoia had not provided financial documents to auditors at the time of the audit.

“These documents were just somewhere within your government but your officers have developed an attitude of ‘utado (I don’t care attitude).’ They feel you are a lame duck boss,” Ayacko said.

The senate committee threatened to invoke provisions of Section 62 of Public Audit Act that provides for Sh5 million fine or three years in jail or both for an officer who fails to provide documents.

The second-term governor admitted to the problems, saying that he already issued show cause letter to the officers after he discovered that several documents had not been submitted.

The county chief was also at pains to explain why his administration was spending up to 37 per cent of its revenues on personnel emolument.

Khaemba said the county inherited huge number of staff from the defunct council as well as the national government.

Some of the officers, he said, lacked the necessary skills, forcing his administration to hire new staff.

He divulged that his administration has undertaken a number of measures including staff rationalisation that has seen the expenditure on payment of staff reduce to 31 per cent.

(Edited by Francis Wadegu)