Embu Governor Martin Wambora has vowed to fire some of his employees and reshuffle his Cabinet over incompetence.
This follows claims that three officials were paid a sum of Sh22.9 million in cash, contrary to the constitutional requirement that it be sent to their accounts through IFMIS payment system.
Wambora appeared before the Senate Public Accounts and Investments Committee on Thursday where he was put to task to answer why the officials also failed to pay taxes.
The same was revealed after an audit that showed that the County Director of Survey David Njagi, Director of D.K Mbai and Director of Survey Kenya P.K Ndungu received the money in the financial year ending June 2018.
Wambora told the committee that the survey which touches on the Mwea settlement scheme is a sensitive one, and cannot go unpunished.
“This process of planning and surveying the Mwea settlement scheme involved many officers. Lives have been lost in the scheme and it’s a problem that dates back to 1966. The County government paid this money as allowances to all those officers who were involved,” said Wambora.
The county boss also had a tough time explaining why his leadership spent 54 per cent of its money on recurrent expenditure, leaving very little for development.
He blamed the situation on the bloated workforce he inherited from the now-defunct local government, saying that he has been unable to cut his staff.
“We inherited a bloated workforce from the defunct local government and we have been unable to sack them. We are spending 54 per cent on personal emoluments including operations and administrative functions,” he explained.