MPs to referee Ministries' row over roads cash

A row between two government Ministries has found its way before a House committee for arbitration.

At the centre of the spat is suspicion of embezzlement of Sh113 million, being money allocated for the maintenance of roads within Nairobi.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government Prof Karega Mutahi and his Roads counterpart Michael Kamau have a date with MPs over the long-running battle between the City Council of Nairobi and the Kenya Urban Roads Authority.

At a meeting with Parliament’s Local Authorities and Fund Accounts Committee Tuesday, Mr Kamau accused the City Council of failing to account for the Sh113 million of public funds allocated to it for maintaining Nairobi’s roads.

While it had submitted a breakdown of the expenditure, there were no supporting documents to back up the summary, he said.

“The money was disbursed, but the City Council is yet to explain how Sh113 million was used. Without filing the returns (on how that money was spent), I will not allow the Kenya Roads Board to allocate additional funds,” said Mr Kamau.

The MPs heard that the council had failed to back up the spending because it just filed a summary of returns without copies of payment vouchers and cheques.

It is that delay in the filing of returns that has derailed further repairs on the roads as the Kenya Roads Board has declined to disburse more funds.

Town Clerk Philip Kisia told MPs that the auditors from Kura had visited City Hall and had not raised queries about the summary of expenditure being backed up.

But the MPs, led by Thomas Mwadeghu (Wundanyi), said the City Hall mandarins were economical with the truth behind the expenditure of the money.

“It is standard practice to submit returns with supporting documents. I think there’s a sinister motive in that failure to submit all documents,” said Mr Pollyns Ochieng (Nyakach), a member of the House Committee.

Mr Mwadeghu ordered Mr Kisia to summon all heads of department at City Hall for a date with the MPs on Friday March 16, 2012, to find out why the City Council was frustrating Kura and its contractors from maintaining the roads in the country’s capital.

“We don’t want a cat and mouse game,” said Mr Mwadeghu. “We cannot have one arm of central government providing service, while the other arm is pulling down”.

Kura officials told the MPs that the city council had consistently dispatched askaris to harass its employees who’re carrying out maintenance works on the capital’s roads. They said the city council also cut down signs put up by the authority, thus throwing heavy losses to Kura.

MPs Charles Nyamai (Kitui West) and Peter Mwathi (Limuru) said City Hall had to be investigated and the account for the roads money audited to find out if there was any malfeasance in the way the money was spent.

It also emerged that the Urban Development Department, under the Ministry of Local Government, had also declined to give documents to the auditors from Kura. One official from the UDD was declared a hostile witness and kicked out of the committee.

“We live in this country all of us. If everyone was to assert themselves, we’d really assert ourselves. What is needed is a lot of dialogue,” said Mr Kamau.

“One of the roads under UDD is right in my town in Nanyuki. It has been lying in limbo since 2006. I decided to keep quiet. Sometimes I like things to take their own levels. The institutions have to work.”