MCAs under probe over Sh30m insurance deal

By NAFTAL MAKORI

Nyamira, Kenya: Six top officials at the County Assembly of Nyamira are under investigation by the Public Investments and Accounts Committee over a controversial Sh30 million medical cover tender.

The committee chaired by Ezra Mochiemo of Magombo Ward is investigating at least six employees over the role they played in awarding the tender to a broker without following due process.

Top officials, among them the Assembly Clerk Duke Onyari are set to face the committee this week.

Onyari is expected to explain the role he played in the tender. Last week, the committee grilled Principal Finance Officer Nemuel Nyakundi and it was established the insurance broker was paid in full on April 4, 2014 through Cheque No 29. The broker was paid despite lack of crucial documents to warrant such payment.

It remains unclear how the broker was paid such a huge amount without producing a local service order (LSO), invoice, delivery note, Form S13 and accompanying minute.

GO HOME

“Somebody has to go home. We cannot sit and watch taxpayers’ money being wasted. Anybody found culpable will face the full force of the law. We are also investigating how some people were employed in the county assembly,” said an MCA who requested anonymity.

He added: “Before MCAs’ oversee the executive, we must begin from the assembly which is rotten with graft. The insurance scandal is just a fraction of what is wrong in the house.”

Sources have intimated that MCAs are determined to remove some top employees from office. Mochiemo confirmed some members of the County Assembly Service Board and the clerk are among the six being investigated.