Nairobi Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko is set to form a pending bills evaluation committee to audit all outstanding debts owed to suppliers and contractors after it was discovered some claims are fictitious, The Informer has learnt.
The team to be formed this week will scrutinise all invoices submitted against contractors awarded in what is believed to be one of the mega corruption inherited from the previous administration.
“I will form a pending bills evaluation committee to audit all work done by contractors. There is a cartel of contractors and suppliers who never did any work or did air supply. Garbage contractors are one of them,” Sonko said.
Our investigations revealed the governor declined to approve a list of payment prepared a fortnight ago and instead demanded authentication of all invoices.
Private garbage contractors are demanding in excess of Sh700million from the county including arrears that were not settled by the previous administration of former governor Evans Kidero.
Sonko said he would not renew any contract signed during the former governor’s tenure although he had expressed goodwill to work with them but claimed they have now turned to be saboteurs.
Sonko is grappling to stem out an entrenched and web-threaded vicious cartels that include high-ranking politicians, government officials and lawyers have continue to call the shot at Nairobi City County government.
“Like I said when I took over office as the governor, I was willing to work with everyone and not to sack people even ministers but it has turned out they are only sabotaging service delivery.
“My administration will not tolerate any form of corruption. The county has 15,000 workers and there are so many lorries and trucks deliberately grounded so that people can do business instead of being used to collect garbage. This will not happe,” Sonko added.
The appointed County Executive Committee members are set to assume office from this week. Nairobi governor has successfully made attempt to streamline operations at City Hall, which has been met with stiff resistance with alleged powerful cartels trying to infiltrate inside his very office without success.
Majorly, the cartels have entrenched themselves in procurement, supplies, finance offices and the multibillion lucrative garbage collection environment dockets. In 2014, Kidero blacklisted 25 contractors after investigations revealed that the officers have been aiding rogue suppliers by preparing fictitious payment vouchers for two years.
