Siaya governor Cornel Rasanga has rubbished claims his leadership owes Sh709.7 million to contractors as was claimed by Auditor General Edward Ouko.
Appearing before the Senate Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday, the county boss said that he only owes Sh59 million in pending bills.
He said that he was actually shocked at the report which was compiled after a look into his 2017/18 financial year, blaming the huge debt on abnormal figures.
"When I saw the figures, I was actually shocked. I ordered an internal audit after I saw some abnormal figures from the auditor. After the audit, only Sh52 million was found to be legible," he told committee Chair Moses Kajwang.
He also rubbished claims that the county paid Sh351 million as salaries to people out of the payroll, rubbishing claims that the county is dealing with ghost workers.
Rasanga said that the money was paid to casual labourers tasked to collect garbage.
He also had a tough time explaining how he spent Sh17 million for branding the county government the previous financial year.
The ODM county boss said that the company tasked with the job did not do any work, and he has since sacked his officials involved in the tendering and paying of the amount to the firm.
"I request this committee to give me time to crack the whip on my officials, though as a result of this, I have sacked and indicted some of my officials,” he added.
This is as Kajwang, also the Homa Bay Senator, suspected that the entire project was a hoax used to pull out money from the county coffers.