By Rhoda Mutuku (Taita Taveta)
While numerous auditor general reports have exposed escalating pillage of resources in many counties, Ethics and anti-corruption commission (EACC) now warns it will go for junior and senior county staff in a purge against corruption.
EACC vice chair Sophia Lepuchirit says the commission will start a mandatory lifestyle audit for all county workers to smoke out ‘public looters’ who freely embezzle public resources to become ‘sudden millionaires.’
“As a commission we shall move with speed to investigate county government workers. We are going to check how much the staff get and what they own compared to their salaries,” said Lepurichit “You joined the county government without a bicycle but within a year, you own a fleet of lorries and houses. You cannot bring down the county government through corruption.”
Speaking at the Taita Taveta County governor’s office where she went to pay courtesy call during the official launch of a two weeks Corruption risk assessment in the county, Lepuchirit said that most county government workers have turned into millionaires shortly after securing employment.
The corruption risk assessment report, she said will enable the county governments to detect, prevent and combat corruption and unethical practices in the management of public funds.
Lepurichit was concerned that recent auditor general report revealed ‘grand’ corruption in most counties noting the situation calls for thorough investigations on the use of public funds in all devolved units.
The anti-graft boss mentioned key areas where corruption is prevalent in most counties as procurement department, finance, public service board, as well as roads and public works.
Specific forms of corruption, she said have been evident in procurement irregularities, mismanagement of finances, conflict of interest in awarding tenders, bribery, forgery of documents, political influence in tendering, hiring of unqualified staff, theft in revenue collected at counties, shoddy construction of roads and bridges among others as some of the areas targeted by corrupt public officials to loot public resources.
The official expressed dismay that among those accused of engaging in diversion of public funds include MCAs who are supposed to protect the resources by exercising their oversight role effectively.
“Devolution was intended not to create very powerful and very rich few individuals but for mwananchi to access national resource share for growth…However there has been a challenge as numerous ways are being used by officials in the counties to suit a few individuals… we are even told that counties have their own River-roads where forgery of documents go on, there is payment of non-existing goods and services and some of the officials who have been accused of engaging in such practices include the MCAs who are supposed to hold the executive accountable. They have been described as the most notorious kind of leaders,” she noted adding most of the said corrupt officials in counties have built palatial homes in their respective counties.
On his part governor Granton Samboja resonated the vice chair’s thoughts and further alluded that his county- Taita Taveta has lost millions of shilling in the hands of unscrupulous revenue officials.
“Time has come for us to seek assistance from EACC in dealing with the challenges in our revenue collection. People are collecting revenue but the monies don’t reach the county government but end up in individual pockets,” said the governor.
