SIAYA, Kenya, Oct 4 – Siaya County Secretary Joseph Ogutu and all County Chief Officers have been sent on compulsory leave by Governor James Orengo.
This follows weeks of outcry by the public and members of parliament in the county who have called on the Governor to reign in on corruption.
Orengo however explained that the move is intended to give the taskforce charged with conducting a forensic audit of the county’s financial operations a conducive environment to discharge their mandate.
He in the meantime made changes to the County’s Finance department, naming Richard Mungla as the new Finance County Executive.
Siaya County has been in the limelight in the recent past following an alleged misappropriation of Sh400 million.
Currently, EACC are investigating the trail of the funds, which were paid out in the run up to the last General election.
Orengo has appealed to the people of Siaya to volunteer any information regarding misappropriation of funds to the EACC and his taskforce.
The taskforce is being chaired by Edward Ouko, the former Auditor-General, with its members Stella Ndeda, Prof Adams Oloo, Dr Grace Ongile, Ms Bella Akinyi, Jared Buoga and Dr Peter Okoth.
The mandate of the taskforce is to do evaluation, assessment and determination of the country’s workforce and revenue administration.
The team has 60 days to complete its work and hand over the report.
Yesterday, Siaya County Assembly Clerk Erick Ogenga dismissed reports that money was lost through dubious means.
Ogenga says the funds they received from the executive were legally approved and paid out to the Assembly members as guided by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
He says the relevant committees conducted performance reviews of all the departments of the committees with a view of developing legacy reports.
“These review meetings generated allowances for members of the Assembly and the participating officers from the executive,” he said.
Ogenga says the Assembly Clerks had a delegated mandate of preparing and effecting payment schedules for all participating officers.
“Such monies meant for allowances were therefore forwarded to certain members of the secretariat for onward payments to the participants,” he said.
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