Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza has told a Senate committee that she is currently residing in the Sh127 million mansion built by the county.
Kawira said the governor’s residence including that of the deputy which had initially stalled have since been completed and operational.
The two residences were the subject of the query by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu in her 2019-20 report.
“I am currently living in the residence, the construction works have been completed and the house is occupied after an initial delay,” she said.
In the report for the financial year 2019-20, Gathungu said the county paid a total of Sh18.5 million to the contractor in March 2019 out of the total contract price for the first certificate.
“A review of the contract and addendum to the contract showed that the contract period was for 24 weeks from October 15, 2018, to April 14, 2019,” the report reads.
Physical verification carried out on October 21, 2020, it says, revealed that the project was incomplete with the contractor having left the site and the project stalled hence value for money could not be confirmed.
But, according to the Kawira, the residences were completed during the financial year 2021-22 and have been occupied.
She told the committee that the delay in completion was due to the capping of the amount that counties could spend towards the construction of governors and deputy governor’s residences.
“The capping was done when Meru County had already awarded the contract for the construction of the official governor’s residence,” she said in the management response.
She explained that following the resolution of the capping stalemate between the Counties, Senate and the Controller of budget, the funds for the projects were availed and construction works resumed.
The executive mansion in Meru town comprises a main house, domestic quarters, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a sauna and an ablution block.
The deputy governor’s residence, on the other hand, cost Sh13.8 million.
During the period under review, it was confirmed that the contractor had been paid Sh8.7 million yet the work had also stopped.
In the report, Gathungu listed the two among the Sh657 million county projects which had either stalled or delayed at the county.
Kawira was further taken to task to explain why she had made little progress on payment of pending bills which stood at Sh1.8 billion as captured in the report.
Out of the total bills, the governor told the committee that only Sh550 million was payable and that they had managed to settle Sh150 million.
According to the governor, a Taskforce formed to scrutinize the bills concluded that there was no proper documentation something that prompted the Isiolo senator Fatuma Dullo to warn that this might affect her.
“Sh700 million is small money, it is good that you sort it out so that it does not affect your performance… Those contractors and suppliers might move to court to question why they are not paid,” said Dullo.
On his part, Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei argued that the amount was not small and “we hope the decision you have given is justifiable because we also want to grow our local contractors”.
Kisii senator Richard Onyonka questioned why the governors are refusing the pending bills inherited from the previous administrations.
