The County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) has directed the Governor of Laikipia County Joshua Irungu to act tough against officers in his administration who enabled fake claims pushing the pending Bills by over Sh1 billion.

The Committee further advised the governor to improve its own source revenue by going on owners of expansive ranches in the county if his administration has to meet its revenue targets.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the governor revealed that he had inherited a Sh2.2 billion pending bill when he took over following the August 2022 general election.

He however set up a pending bills committee to investigate and verify if the works were done and whether the bills due were legitimate.

“The committee could only verify pending bills amounting to Sh1.2 billion,” said the governor.

The report of the committee was handed over to the governor in mid-May but is yet to be debated and adopted by the County Executive Committee Members (CECMs).

He said once the report is adopted by the CECMs he will immediately implement and start paying the bills but insisted he will not pay what is not eligible.

However the response was challenged by the chairman of committee Moses Kajwang, who demanded to know the action he had taken against officers in the county who might have enabled the falsification of the financial documents.

Senator Kajwang told the governor he must deal with the staff who facilitate such fraud because, on their own, the contractors cannot carry out such schemes.

“You have a Sh1 billion in your books which is manufactured. May be you need to start by telling the committee what you have done to some of your officers who facilitated the fraud,” said senator Kajwang, adding that the culprits and the issues must be identified and forwarded to the EACC to investigate.

“It is not enough to say that bills worth Sh1 billion is ineligible, you must demonstrate the administrative lapses that led to this fraud. Contractors cannot do it on their own,” he added, pointing out that such acts frustrate innocent Kenyans whose interest is to do legitimate business.

Governor Irungu, who was defending the county’s financial books for the 2019/20 financial year, described the fake claims as the “elephant in the room” but asked for more time, promising to act hard against such actions in future.

“As a county we have made a commitment to use the Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) in all its procurement processes to forestall such mess as witnesses in the pending bill fake claims.

The county has also constituted Mashinani Development Committee who role will be monitor the progress of projections.

“Essentially the committee is composed of the users of the project who must endorse by satisfying that it was properly done.”

The governor further revealed that the national government owes the county a total of Sh1.2 billion as contribution in lieu of rates accrued from land occupied by all national government installations.

The governor said the county has so far collected Sh139 million in the last five years and sought the help of the Senate to get the balance.

“We have started following up the money but I can tell the committee asking for the money from the national government is easier said than done,” the governor protested.

“Time has come for the Senate, as protectors of county governments, to defend laikipia county and ensure it gets the money.” 

On the question of ranches, the governor told the committee the county has approved its valuation roll and in the 2023/24 financial year, the county has raised its target own source revenue to Sh1.5 billion.

“We have decided to target ranchers but we are skeptical on whether they will pay up because they have a habit of under declaring their wealth.”