Michael Mubea, the deputy CEO of Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. FILE
By George Omondi, omondi@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) says its preliminary assessment of the 47 counties has uncovered massive irregularities in staff hiring and tender awards.
Almost every county government has flouted
tendering rules and violated staffing guidelines by rewarding cronies
and relatives, the anti-graft watchdog says.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC)
says its preliminary assessment of the 47 counties has uncovered massive
irregularities in staff hiring and tender awards.
“There are a lot of challenges, but nepotism in
hiring county staff and violation of public tenders rules are common to
all the 47 counties,” Michael Mubea, EACC’s deputy chief executive
officer in charge of operations told the Senate’s committee on finance,
commerce and planning Thursday.
“We have several live files which are undergoing
serious investigations at the moment and very soon, you may see some top
county officials being hauled to courts,” he said.
The comments confirm fears earlier expressed by
Auditor-General’s office when he pointed procurement and staff hiring as
potential areas through which counties could waste devolved resources.
“As for procurement, most counties do not have
qualified staff and the situation is dire such that you find that same
people sit at every stage of the tendering process,” the Auditor-General
Edward Ouko said in an earlier interview.
On Thursday, the senators voiced the same concern
with the chairman of Finance, Commerce and Planning committee Billow
Kerrow saying that a significant chunk of revenues collected by counties
end up in private pockets.
“Some of these malpractices are well-detailed in
the Auditor-General’s report but we have established that counties don’t
take these reports seriously,” said Mr Kerrow.
The senators want EACC to come up with preventive
measures instead of waiting to react later even as counties continue to
advertise for tenders and jobs.
In the 2013/14, the government devolved a number
of roles, put assets worth billions of shillings in the hands of county
executives and disbursed a total of Sh210 billion to the 47 units.
The direct allocation is equivalent to total tax
revenues that Kenya Revenue Authority had collected in 2004 to run the
whole country.
In the absence of proper checks and balances,
county officials – members of county assemblies (MCAs) and
executives—are said to be colluding to benefit from resources put under
them.
“The truth is that relatives are trading at the
counties. Tenders and jobs go to people linked to county executives and
MCAs,” said Nyeri Senator Mutahi Kagwe.
“The unfortunate thing is that most county
officials are talking about the vices openly because they don’t
understand that it’s wrong to do some of the things. I have an MCA who
keeps telling me how much he hates a governor because he has failed to
employ his sister.”
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