- During his 107 days in office, Orengo launched subsidised tractor services to help farmers in the county to plough their land ahead of planting season.
- This was in fulfilment of one of his campaign pledges to open more arable land in the county for farming and rid Siaya of hunger.
Image: DICKENS WASONGA
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating an alleged flawed process in procuring subsidised fertiliser by governor James Orengo's administration.
The county assembly late last year approved a supplementary budget where Sh120 million was allocated for the purchase of certified seeds and subsidized fertilizers.
Another Sh 31 million was to go towards the purchase of tractors.
During his 107 days in office, Orengo launched subsidised tractor services to help farmers in the county to plough their land ahead of planting season.
This was in fulfilment of one of his campaign pledges to open more arable land in the county for farming and rid Siaya of hunger.
The launch was done in the Rarieda sub-county where the governor also said free certified seeds would be availed to farmers together with subsidised fertiliser.
He said the fertiliser subsidy will be higher than what the national government is offering to farmers.
"In fulfilling our campaign promise that we will be making Siaya County food secure, we will also be providing subsidized fertilizers to the farmers. My clarion call to the residents of Siaya is to embrace agriculture," Orengo said at the launch.
However, the Star has established that the process to procure the fertiliser has been halted after the EACC wrote a letter to the county government last week demanding to be furnished with all documents relating to the procurement.
The commission's regional manager George Oira confirmed that officers from his office in Kisumu are investigating the matter.
" It is true we have initiated an investigation into the issue of the fertiliser procurement by the Siaya County government. We wrote letters to them because we need some of the information which will guide our probe," he said when reached for comment on Friday.
Governor James Orengo promised to ruthlessly and relentlessly fight corruption upon assuming office.
He went on to appoint a task force to carry out systems audit and governance reforms covering his predecessor's last two years in office.
Retired auditor general Edward Ouko led the seven-member committee that gave out its final report on January 20.
The report indicted staffers at the county government who were accused of siphoning Sh 1 billion during the review period.
Ouko, amongst other recommendations, asked the governor to do an overhaul of the county treasury.
But even the move to appoint the task force also met fierce criticism mainly from a section of members of the civil society and political leaders who accused the governor of spending Sh30 million in a process that only confirmed what was already public knowledge.
Further, it is not clear whether the county government adhered to the SRC circular on payments of allowances to members of task forces, committees or tribunals set up by county governments
A lobby group faulted Orengo for spending Sh20 million on a task force to “table the obvious.”
The Operation Linda Ugatuzi leader Prof Fred Ogola told the Star that the task force was supposed to name the culprits instead it just stated that millions of money were stolen.
“Is there any finding that Ouko’s report has revealed that we could not tell? How much has it cost the people of Siaya to do this report?” Ogola paused.
They accused the Ouko-led team of copy-pasting existing internal audit reports that covered the two financial years under review.
Over 50 officers who were serving at the county treasury, in senior and lower levels are at the centre of another probe by the DCI where Sh600 million was misappropriated.
Amongst those who were summoned by the DCI detectives probing the matter includes former finance chief officer Dennis Nyonje.
EACC also has another active case where Sh400 million is said to have been withdrawn and suspiciously paid to contractors and individuals just days before the August polls and before the assumption of office by the new administration.