NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 13 — Bomet Governor Hillary Barchok was on Monday put on spot over 34 stalled and poorly done projects totaling Sh332 million, including Sh83 million spent of boreholes that yielded no water.
Physical verification of the 34 sampled projects revealed several unsatisfactory issues on their implementation.
The breakdown done by the Auditor General Nancy Gathungu pointed out that review on the implementation status of the Bomet County Government, taxpayers may not obtain value for money.
Appearing before the Senate County Public Accounts Committee, Barchok said he had formed a task force to advise him on which stalled projects to prioritize.
“Chair,I have formed a task force to establish the priority projects to embark on.In the projects initiated between 2013-2017 some projects didn’t have documentation,” he told Senators.
“Terminating the contracts of those projects has been an issue for the county government, “said Barchok.
Homabay Senator Moses Kajwang who chairs the committee mentioned that the 34 stalled project might be a waste to the taxpayers monies.
“These are actually white elephant projects because money was used and there was no development,” said Kajwang.
Dry boreholes
The Auditor’s report before the committee reveals that the County initiated a project of drilling boreholes worth Sh83 million, an investment that failed to yield results.
In one of the examples cited in the report, a technical borehole project valued at Sh2 million was completed but it didn’t yield any water.
The Auditor General has faulted the county government for failing to conduct a feasibility study before the drilling was done.
Governor Barchok however told senators that the feasibility study was done by the Lake Victoria South Water Development Agency.
He explained that the lack of results could be blamed on scientific technicalities and human error.
“Lake Victoria South gave us the support but we didn’t get any water in the boreholes. We can only blame the situation on scientific reasons or the human error,” said Barchok.
Questionable feasibility studies
Senators however poked holes on the Governor’s explanation raising questions on why no report had been tabled before the committee on the feasibility studies.
Kajwang termed the project a white elephant given that taxpayers money was utilized with the residents not accessing development.
“We can clearly state that Sh83M spent by the Bomet County Government has been sunk. Boreholes have been drilled and no water has come out of the water projects,” said Kajwang.
“This is a case of a public investment with no return and no value for money,” he added.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei questioned Barchok’s insistence that a feasibility study was conducted saying the probability of borehole projects failing after a feasibility study is minimal.
“I normally drill boreholes and there is a report and in most cases they never fail. When you say it failed because of science, it raises a lot of questions,” said Cherargei.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna raised queries on why all the boreholes on which Lake Victoria South purportedly conducted feasibility failed.
“Were hydro survey really conducted before the drilling process began because how likely is it that all the boreholes failed?” questioned Sifuna.
New feasibility study
Barchok however defended the county investment saying the Lake Victoria South had promised to conduct a new feasibility study to ascertain why the water projects failed.
“It’s not like all the water projects failed the issue was that the volume of water in the boreholes was low. However Lake Victoria Basin has promised to conduct a new survey,” the Governor said.
Governor Barchok was also questioned for constructing pipeline extensions on private land without a binding agreement with the land owners.
The Auditor General further pointed out that in the pipeline extensions projects worth Sh66 million, residents were still unable to access water.
Investment on private land
Senators raised concerns on why the county government was investing public funds on private land without a legal agreement terming the move an investment risk.
“Governor why do you choose to have pipeline extensions on private land and you know clearly how land is an emotive subject. It is a life and death matter,” Cherargei stated.
Barchok explained that for water distribution in the wards within the county they have no option than to construct pipelines in private land.
“For pipeline construction there’s no way we can avoid passing the extensions through private land,” he said.
“We have negotiated and had public participation with land owners,” Barchok asserted.
Stalled construction of ward offices in 15 wards amounting to Sh 87M were either abandoned, suspended or terminated altogether during the fiscal period under review.
The wards include: Bomet East, Sotik, Chemagei, Chebunyo and Kembu.
“Stalled and abandoned after floor slab and walling. The wall was leaning and
looked like it could collapse,” the Auditor General observed.
Out of the 463 projects initiated since 2013 in the inception of devolution only 330 projects were conclusively done.
The report indicates 104 projects with contracted sums totaling Sh930 million were either incomplete, were ongoing or had stalled.
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