Embu Ward Representatives have threatened to impeach County Executive Committee members on grounds of incompetence, non-performance and contravention of the law.
This was after interrogating Finance and Economic Planning CEC Prof. Joe Kamaria on reports of the Auditor General on County Revenue Fund for the year ended 30th June that revealed massive financial malpractices.
During the grilling of Prof. Kamaria on Wednesday by the County Assembly Public Accounts Committee, it was revealed stocks of drugs worth Ksh 7.9 million donated to the county had expired at Embu Level Five Hospital stores.
The CEC was at pains to explain why the drugs were left to expire in the store without being used when all facilities across the county have over the years been hit by acute drug shortage.
The CEC also had a hard time to explain why outstanding imprests amounting to Ksh 25.4 million had not been surrendered for the last five years with some junior officers at the County Executive said had taken imprests of up to Ksh 2.9 million.
MCAs led by the PAC Chairman Paul Muchangi demanded recovery of the long outstanding imprests, plus Ksh 680, 000 illegal allowances pocketed by members of the County Public Service Board.
Muchangi slammed the head of the County Treasury for presenting unsigned payment vouchers as evidence in the committee, terming them as forgeries.
Deputy Speaker Ibrahim Swaleh questioned why the County Government had paid Ksh 156 million as insurance for a pickup (KBL 009M) which was privately owned by a Commercial Bank.
He also noted that the county had no updated vehicle register with details of chassis numbers, engine numbers, the dates the vehicles were put into use and the dates the vehicles were grounded.
The Auditor’s report further revealed that two law firms were paid Ksh 5.8 million without an approval from the County Cabinet and also not supported by itemized fee notes.
Further, the committee queried why Ksh 11.1 million held as retention funds for contractors engaged in development projects was missing from the county accounts.
The CEC was given seven days to document the measures taken to rectify anomalies raised by the Office of the Auditor General and report back to the County Assembly.
