The Meru County Assembly's Public Accounts and Investment committee has summoned the Finance chief executive, Health chief executive, public service chief executive, the county secretary and three senior county government officials over multi million scandals.
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| Meru county assembly |
The scandals under investigation are the attempt to defraud the county government by paying for non-existent food supplies to Meru Referral hospital, the delayed construction of Kinoru stadium, illegal insurance cover for county government staff, irregular procurement of curtains for Meru hospital and irregular payments to two media houses.
The county government is alleged to have paid Kshs 175 million for county staff insurance cover that did not go through competitive tendering. Kshs 15 million was allegedly paid for imaginary food supplies to Meru level five hospital. Another 15 million shillings was paid to two media houses for questionable services rendered to the county. The health department is on record having procured curtains for the Meru referral hospital at an exorbitant cost of Kshs 7.8 million. Meru residents are still waiting for the opening of Kinoru stadium months after the governor said it would be complete for use. It is rumoured that the contractor has not received any payments although money was disbursed to the relevant department hence the go-slow.
The public Accounts and Investment committee chairman, Daniel Kiogora, has said his committee has decided to investigate the scandals after receiving complaints from top officials in the finance department. Last month, the county chief officer for finance, Mr. James Muthaura, (the equivalent of a permanent secretary in the national government) resigned due to what he called an attempt to force him to sign dubious transactions.
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