County cash offices fires leave more queries than ashes

Detectives in at least four counties are investigating mysterious fires that have gutted finance and procurement offices, destroying crucial documents including tender documents, payment vouchers and bank statements.

In all the four counties, the infernos have happened at night, mostly during weekends, when most staff are away, making it challenging to mobilise emergency response to put them out, despite the counties having standby fire engines.

In Migori, Homa Bay, Busia and Kitui counties, valuable equipment worth millions of shillings, including office furniture, computers and cabinets, which were holding the county records, were reduced to ashes.

For instance in Migori County, the fire that consumed the procurement office happened weeks after the Auditor General flagged down questionable expenditure of Sh1.5 billion, making it difficult to conclude the audit.

AUDIT QUERIES

Tender documents, work tickets, payment vouchers, payment cashbooks and bank statements were lost following a fire outbreak that consumed the procurement store.

“The expenditure could not be vouched for due to lack of relevant documents and financial records, which allegedly got burnt during the fire outbreak leading to limitation of scope,” said former Auditor General Edward Ouko.

The funds were spent through the government online payment platform in the three months between July and September 2017, but Mr Ouko said his office could not determine what exactly transpired. The matter is still under investigation and no arrests have been made.

In Kitui, DCI boss Paul Wachira said police are yet to make any arrests over a similar fire incident that broke out at 2am and razed a block of county offices which housed the budget and economic planning departments.

But Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu and Senator Enoch Wambua have been trading accusations over the fire incident as police questioned several county staff.

SUSPECTS

Senator Wambua blames the county government for failing in disaster preparedness after it emerged that the county fire engines did not respond to the inferno because they were grounded.

But Governor Ngilu said it was wrong for the senator to jump into conclusions and that he should be investigated by police for what he claims to know about the inferno.

“It is not lost on my administration that we are operating in a poisoned political environment, where some leaders are quick to jump to unfounded conclusions at any misfortune that affects us,” she said in a statement.

Kitui Municipal Manager Meshack Nyenze resigned last month after he was put to task over fire department’s failure to respond to the fire.

Detectives are puzzled because the offices, which are situated a few meters from the county commissioner’s office, are guarded by the police round the clock.

The incident happened as the county executive was embroiled in a standoff with the county assembly over failure to pass this year’s budget.

In Homa Bay County, three people are facing arson charges after they were accused of burning down the county finance and procurement offices in 2017.

EACC PROBE

The suspects were arrested on different dates after fire burnt down the county finance offices just days after officials from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission launched investigations.

According to Homa Bay County DCI boss Daniel Wachira, police have impounded a car believed to have been used in executing the crime.

Several county government officials were questioned after preliminary investigations indicated it could have been an inside job.

In Busia County, two suspects are facing charges after detectives linked them to a fire that burnt the County finance office and destroyed crucial documents on September 25 last month.

The accused are Evans Wandera Wangati, an accountant in the office of the governor, and finance director Paul Okoth Anono.

The two suspects who were arrested by EACC officers just hours after the fire incident, denied the charges.

PROCUREMENT

Before the incident, the graft agency had written to Busia County Government requesting for documents and information over procurement irregularities.

In a letter dated August 27, 2019 addressed to County Secretary Nicodemus Mulaku, EACC requested to be furnished with documentation on at least Sh56 million procurement deals involving three companies namely Evam, Draccy and Loviannah Enterprises.

The county, according to sources, failed to deliver the documents and pleaded for an extension of two weeks within which the offices were consumed by fire.

Reports by Kitavi Mutua, Ruth Mbula, George Odiwour and Gaitano Pesa