20 County Officers On The Spot Over Loss Of Sh100 Million In Baringo County

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has summoned 20 senior Baringo County officials over the alleged theft of Ksh100 million meant for rehabilitation of roads in the county in the 2017/2018 budget. The officers were summoned over the corruption allegations on Monday and by Wednesday at least 14 had been interrogated and their statements recorded.

According to EACC South Rift Director Hassan Khalid, Among those being probed are the County Secretary Francis Komen, Director of Procurement Moses Toroitich, Chief Officer of Roads and Infrastructure Michael Kiptoo and the County Chief Executive Committee member for Roads Elijah Kipkoros. The County Roads Engineer and a number of junior staff serving in the department of roads, procurement, and accounts will also be facing questioning.

The money, set aside under the 2017/2018 financial years to improve roads in 30 wards across the county and was dubbed Imarisha Barabara; under rapid response initiative was marred with irregularities in the procurement process, substandard work and alleged outright theft of public funds. “The officials summoned are accused of illegality in the rapid response initiative of over Sh100 million that was illegally procured and to work done was shoddy,” said Mr Khalid.

Eyebrows were raised when the auditor general in his 2017/2018 budget report, indicated that Governor Stanley Kiptis administration had failed to explain why it budgeted for over Sh250 million road projects but could not implement a single one. The audit showed that the county department of Transport and Infrastructure budgeted to construct 102 road projects, four flagships projects, and 83 rollover projects from prior years during the 2017/2018 Financial Year , however, only 24 projects with a contract sum of Sh63,393,376 were completed, 87 projects worth Sh184,355,902 were ongoing which included eight rollover projects of Sh11,367,079 and eight projects with a value of Sh22, 165,655 had not even started as at June 30, 2018.

“No explanation has been provided for failure to complete the projects or explained why the County Executive budgeted for projects it could not implement during the year,” stated the Auditor General’s report.