Waiguru invalidates claims of misuse of Covid-19 funds in Kirinyaga County

Governor Anne Waiguru has invalidated claims of misuse of Covid-19 funds by her administration terming the reports as misleading.

This comes days after the auditor general listed 33 counties that engaged in buying of Covid-19 items in the absence of procurement plans.

In statement, Waiguru says that the reports are biased and meant to mislead the public.

According to Waiguru, Kirinyaga County provided sufficient proof of compliance and in the few instances where the case was not so, it was due to matters beyond the county’s control such as court orders relating to the ongoing dispute between the executive and the assembly at the time.

“This could not be done in Kirinyaga as the budget was the subject of a court proceeding due to the then ongoing dispute between the County Executive and the County Assembly,” she said.

Further, she said that the Assembly failed to set up a fund which by law would require the approval by the County Assembly.

However, she noted that there was delay in the approval of these regulations by the county assembly, a position which remained so at the time of audit.

“However, these have since been approved by the assembly,” she added.

She added that Covid-19 goods procured were all captured in the Procurement Plan which were duly approved by CECM- Finance and Economic planning as per Section 53(5) of the PPAD ACT 2015.

As stated in the statement, she said that the procurement was done based on indicative budget that was at the period of audit still being adjudicated at the County Assembly.

“The County Government had established an emergency fund in line with section 110 of PFM Act 2012 which consisted of money appropriated by the County Assembly to fund emergency expenditures,” she added.

The counties listed in the audit include Bomet, Bungoma, Elgeyo Marakwet, Embu, Garissa, Homa Bay, Isiolo, Kakamega, Kericho and Kirinyaga.

Others are Kwale, Machakos, Mandera, Migori and Mombasa.

Without procurement plans the counties shopped from any available supplier and without having done any market survey for the goods being purchased.

The report flags the risk of buying overpriced items with the counties of Embu, Homa Bay, Isiolo and Murang’a found guilty of engaging non-prequalified suppliers.

Meanwhile, the county governments of Kakamega, Busia, Isiolo, Marsabit and Meru went to the market blindly without having conducted no market survey for COVID-19 items.

Bomet, Kisii and Meru counties have been indicted for irregularly splitting procurement contracts to give a chance to companies and suppliers aligned with the political administration.

Bungoma and Kitui counties on the other hand have been identified for blatantly misappropriating funds for the Kenya Devolution Support Program kitty.

Twelve county administrations including Baringo, Busia, Homa Bay, Lamu, Mandera, Marsabit, Meru, Migori, Muranga and Narok are accused of dishing out contracts in absence of competitive bidding.

Other culprits in this category are Nyandarua and Trans Nzoia counties

The report also noted that some counties contracted suppliers without valid contracts to deliver COVID-19 items.

Those fingered in these irregularities include Kajiado, Kirinyaga, Laikipia and Tharaka Nithi counties.