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Winstone Chiseremi @Wchiseremi
A Nandi county task force has unearthed a scam involving Sh900 million which was set to be paid to ghost contractors and suppliers.
The county would have lost the money had it cleared a Sh1.3 million pending bills dating back to 2014 and 2018.
Nandi Finance CEC Alfred Langat said the taskforce discovered the amount which contractors and suppliers were seeking as payment for their services was not genuine after pending bills verification was done.
Actual amount
He said the team discovered that actual amount owed to contractors and suppliers is Sh400 million.
Lagat said taskforce rescued the county government from losing Sh900 million for tenders which were awarded unprocedurally for work not done between 2014 and 2018.
He said the county formed a taskforce last year after the contractors mounted pressure on the devolved unit to speed up their payments emanating from the previous regime.
“After the team conducted investigations it discovered that money being demanded was for ghost projects with pending bills under the administration of former Governor Cleophas Lagat,” said the CEC.
Lagat said the dues owed would be paid out in phases and genuine contractors would receive their monies while those with bogus claims would be prosecuted for attempting to swindle taxpayers’ money.
