Nakuru County Governor Lee Kinyanjui (left) with EACC chairman Eliud Wabukala (centre) with his Deputy CEO Michael Mubea (right) in Nakuru County on February 19, 2018. PHOTO | AYUB MUIYURO | NMG
Watchdog report will rank the 42 counties from most corrupt to least.
The EACC deputy chief executive officer did not indicate the timelines for its release.
The commission received 371 corruption reports touching Nakuru County between 2015 and 2017.
Kenya will soon know the most corrupt county out of the 47 devolved units when the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) releases its index report.
EACC deputy chief executive officer, Michael Mubea, said research into the state of corruption in Kenya which was undertaken in 2016 is ready and will soon be made public.
However, speaking during the launch of the corruption risk assessment reports for Nakuru County executive and county assembly on Monday, Mr Mubea did not indicate the timelines.
“In 2016 we did undertake a research on the state of corruption in Kenya and the report is ready and will soon be released to the public,” said Mr when he read the report findings on behalf of the EACC chief executive Halakhe Waqo.
“The report will be classifying the counties and the public will be able to know which some of the most corrupt counties and which are the least corrupt counties.”
Devolved graft
He revealed that the watchdog was shocked to note that one female Ward rep who was on maternity leave was still drawing sitting allowances.
“The big question was, how was she attending the plenary meeting and other committee meetings while she was on maternity?” wondered Mr Mubea.
In another case, a senior public officer had put a contractor building his private house at his rural home on payroll.
“When we investigated this case we found that the contractor had been recruited like an employee and was drawing salary,” said Mr Mubea.
At the same time, Mr Mubea said the officer had manipulated the systems and that his wife was also drawing a standing allowance.
Wage bill
For Nakuru county executive, the report shows that the November 2016 wage bill was Sh364 million whereas in December the same year it declined to Sh295 million, resulting in a difference of Sh70 million which has never been reconciled to date.
“As EACC we are concerned. Sh70 million is not pocket change. It is a lot of money,” said Mr Mubea.
The current annual Nakuru County wage bill is nearly Sh6 billion.
The county assembly was also on the spot for flouting the prescribed procurement process and public financial management regulations.
“For instance according to the report, the assembly used cash imprest of Sh689 million for the financial year 2016/ 2017 to refurbish the cafeteria. The assembly did not also embrace the vote control procedure and mortgage and car loans processing of MCAs were not undertaken with due diligence. Sh50 million for office operations and maintenance was processed using the wrong vote head,” said the report.
At the same time 23 MCAs had not surrendered log books as collateral for car loans granted.
The commission received 371 corruption reports touching Nakuru County between 2015 and 2017.
The majority were on bribery, procurement irregularities, fraudulent acquisition and disposal of public properties and abuse of office among others.
Governor Lee Kinyanjui and Speaker Joel Kairo Main who were present promised to implement the recommendations of the report in full.
“I will ensure undercover audit systems will be conducted to ensure compliance with best practices,” said Mr Kinyanjui.
Speaker Kairo said the assembly will study the report and act on it according to the law.
