Contractors in Tana River County have criticized the Senate Public Accounts Committee for failing to visit the county last week, saying the missed session denied residents an opportunity to air their grievances and demand answers on the management of public funds.
During a meeting with area Senator Danson Mungatana in Hola town, the contractors accused the county government of neglecting its pending bills. They alleged that the payment schedule was being disregarded, with newer contractors reportedly being paid ahead of firms that completed their projects much earlier.
- Advertisement -
They also claimed that reports submitted by the county to the Senate and the Controller of Budget listed several ghost projects that had allegedly been paid for despite there being no corresponding work on the ground.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Mungatana urged his Senate colleagues to schedule sessions in the county, saying they needed to visit the affected areas and directly assess the concerns raised by residents.
“Our businessmen are saying that the principle of First in First Out (FIFO) is not being adhered to in this county. There are people who delivered their contracts long ago and have not been paid yet. There are those who did projects recently and have been paid because of allegedly a good relationship with the governor,” Mungatana said.
“The contractors are also saying that the payment schedule is not being followed and their papers are being used to release money from the controller of budget, and yet that money goes to other companies. These are some of the issues that the Senate Public Accounts Committee should have visited here to come and witness themselves,” he added.
Mungatana said a Senate mashinani session in Tana River could expose alleged ghost projects and help protect funds meant for residents, who he said had continued to suffer marginalization because of the misuse of public resources by a few officials.
“There are projects that the county officials, when called to the senate in Nairobi, say that they have been completed, yet on the ground there is completely nothing. They are justifying the use of money on non-existent projects. There are roads that the county is claiming they used millions to construct, and yet nothing has been done. The people of Tana River are saddened by the failure of the Senate PAC to come here,” he said.
“I urge my colleagues in the senate to plan for a day to come here because our citizens are waiting for them so that you listen to their issues and find a way to help them so that they can be paid. The issue of pending bills in the county government. There are counties that have come up with management plans to clear pending bills and are paying them according to their schedule, but there are counties that are not following their own schedules,” he added.
Rashid Onchanga, the secretary general of the county Civil Society Organizations, said the committee’s failure to travel to Tana River was disappointing. He said local groups had prepared to present their concerns, seek explanations from county officials and visit projects reported as complete.
“We had been invited here, and the Senate PAC committee would visit here on the 25th of this month. They were to come here after Kilifi on the issues of management of public funds by the counties. This is one of the most marginalized counties in the country, and its vulnerability is still rising,” Onchanga said.
“We want that committee to come here so that we can voice out our concerns. We visit the projects which are allegedly said to have been completed because we have analyzed our county budget and all the reports so that we can see where those ghost projects, which are getting paid,” he added.
Steve Buya, a young resident of the county, questioned why the session had been cancelled simply because the governor was unavailable, arguing that the deputy governor could have responded to the concerns on behalf of the administration.
Buya urged the county government to address the pending bills, warning that delayed payments were hurting contractors, families and suppliers while disrupting livelihoods across the county.
“We wanted to address several issues that the county government has failed to do, starting with pending bills. When the pending bills are not being paid, the county is not running. This is the second incident for the senate to come here and find the governor is not available; if the governor is not here, the deputy governor should have taken over to answer these concerns,” Buya said.
