Cost of Mandera governor residence queried
The Sh285 million Mandera County governor’s official residence has raised eyebrows, with Senators directing the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to find out whether residents got value for money.
The Senate’s County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) issued the directive after Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu flagged the cost of the residence, saying it was inflated beyond the ceiling set by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
The Auditor-General also revealed that former Governor Ali Roba, now senator, left behind salary arrears totalling to Sh1.2 billion.
Committee chairperson and Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’ said the expenditure on the governor’s residence did not make sense to the residents who are battling biting poverty as well as lack of food and water.
“It is not possible to spend such an amount on a house in a rural county like Mandera,” Mr Kajwang said at a meeting with Governor Mohamed Khalif.
Mr Khalif led the Mandera County Executive in responding to audit queries in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years before CPAC.
The May 20, 2019 SRC circular capped the cost of constructing county governor, deputy governor and county assembly speakers’ residences at Sh45 million, Sh40 million and Sh35 million, respectively.
“The county leadership decided to go for Hollywood kind of homes, the homes for NBA and multibillion shilling football stars. The governor is competing with Cristiano Ronaldo in lifestyles when there are no drugs in county hospitals, when there is no bursary for children,” said Mr Kajwang.
“The expenditure makes no sense. It is a total violation of the constitution,” said Busia Senator Okiya Omtata, adding that those who approved the payments should be surcharged.
“In situations like this, we should go for recovery. There were set limits but the county decided to ignore them,” he said.
On the salary arrears, Mr Khalif told the committee that the county staff were not paid for four months—March to June 2022.
But the senators said there was no way a county can go for four months without requisition of salary for employees and ordered the governor to furnish the committee with more information on the issue.
Although Governor Khalif said the salary arrears have been paid, the committee said it will summon the former governor to appear before it to respond to the issues in the audit reports.
“A county with a salary arrears should be shut down as it is no longer a going concern,” said Mr Kajwang.
Mr Omtata wondered “how no one was paid for four months and no one went on strike”.
“It is not adding up. We need to establish the facts,” said Mr Omtata.
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