Pending bills scandal: Staff face probe in Sh1.1bn fraud
Integrity Centre that hosts Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission offices in Nairobi.
Tens of county government officials are facing possible prosecution for allegedly scheming with contractors to defraud the devolved unit of more than Sh1.1 billion in non-existent pending bills.
A task force formed by Governor Julius Malombe to audit pending bills has recommended stern action against the 91 county employees, including criminal sanctions after it found that they abetted grand corruption by filing fictitious claims.
In their audit report, the Pending Bills Review Committee chaired by former Tanathi Water Services Board boss Nicholas Muthui established that, out of Sh2.5 billion pending bill claims presented by various contractors, only Sh1.4 billion were eligible for payment.
The Sh2.5 billion claims were handed over to Dr Malombe by his predecessor Charity Ngilu after he took office last August, but some date back to as far as 2013.
“The committee identified 85 cases where there were suspected corrupt, fraudulent and false claims involving 91 county staff who were colluding with contractors to steal public funds,” Mr Muthui said during a ceremony to release the report last week attended by top county government officials, members of the county assembly, the clergy, community leaders, the press among other stakeholders.
In most cases, Mr Muthui pointed out, county officials signed project completion certificates and approved payments while work was either partially done or not done at all.
There were rampant cases of falsification of payment documents and forgery of official signatures as well as instances of bias in the award and distribution of contracts and projects, in which the certificates issued were based on contract sums rather than on work done.
Paid promptly
In one glaring case, a county government worker is alleged to have registered more than 50 companies using proxies, which won dozens of contracts worth hundreds of millions of shillings and which were paid promptly, in a clear case of corruption.
The task force recommended that, where public funds were paid fraudulently, recovery proceedings should be instituted immediately and the officials involved surcharged alongside facing disciplinary action.
The 91 implicated staff are spread across all county government departments, with officials responsible for the finance docket — and who processed the payments — alongside Public Works engineers who supervise the projects, cited as being the most culpable.
“The county may also consider forwarding the companies involved in the fraudulent dealings to investigative agencies, including the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) for necessary action,’’ said the committee chairman.
Mr Muthui said his team was shocked to find that projects done using county machinery and equipment were purported to have been executed by private contractors and monies paid for them.
Under investigation
In other cases, works commissioned by development partners and donors were purported to be executed by well-connected private contractors and billed for payment.
Nation has established that some of the projects in question are already under investigation by the EACC.
While receiving the damning report, Governor Malombe vowed that the fictitious Sh1.1 billion claims will not be paid and that the county staff involved in the fraud will face disciplinary action.
“They can make all the noise they want in bars and on social media, but the county government will only pay legitimate and eligible claims after presenting a payment plan to the Controller of Budget,” said the governor.
Eligible bills
He, however, assured the public that his administration was committed to paying all the eligible pending bills.
Going forward, Dr Malombe said, he would ensure contractors and other service providers are paid on time “because the county government has a duty to revive our local economy”.
Retired Anglican Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi echoed calls to punish the alleged looters of public funds, saying, all residents of Kitui County should rally behind Governor Malombe to stamp out corruption.
