Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya on Wednesday presented himself before the Senate Public Accountants (PAC) committee to shed more light on the county's Sh1.6 billion pending bills.
The second-term governor was questioned over the bills after the auditor general’s report on the 2017/2018 financial year showed some discrepancies in resource utilisation by his administration. The report indicated that Sh1.6 billion had been allocated to fake pending bills.
The county government's budget also included a surplus of Sh1.2 billion, which the county cannot account for.
Mvurya was also put to task over the hiring of lawyers from Kilifi County at a cost Sh18 million when he appeared before the Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang-led committee.
The county boss was also asked to explain why his government has collected less revenue despite having different revenue streams.
Kajwang’s team noted that the county government reported that the pending bills accounted for Sh1.5 billion but it was later discovered that Sh1.6 billion had been allocated towards the same.
Mvurya was cornered to explain why his government presented figures which are untrue.
“We want to understand where the ineligible fake claims of over Sh1.6 billion were cooked,” Kajwang said, as quoted by the Standard.
Mvurya, who was accompanied by his Finance CeC Bakari Sebe, insisted all funds from the National Treasury had been utilised fully.
He also said that they had no invoices to show the payments because his government was yet to clear the bills aforementioned.
The other members of the committee were Senators Prof Sam Ongeri, Fatuma Dullo and Millicent Omanga.