Meru County government has dismissed a petition by a resident on misuse of funds terming it as political witch-hunting meant to achieve a political agenda.
In the petition that has already been taken to the Senate by Mr Salesio Thuranira Mutuma, Governor Kawira Mwangaza is accused of misusing Sh 42 Million by paying it to four persons who are allegedly her relatives.
Addressing journalists on behalf of the Governor, Chief officer in charge of public Service management Mr James Mutia said the document was manipulated in order to achieve political mileage as well as intimidating and destabilising county officers.
“I wish to state that I am an accounting officer and can assure the people of Meru that not even a single coin was misused as alleged. All the government procedures regarding public funds were followed and there are enough documents to ascertain this,” said Mr Mutia.
He added that unlike the funds allocated to various government departments, those allocated to the office of the governor are never meant for any development but to facilitate meetings, travels, catering, hospitality among other logistics.
“It is unfortunate for anyone to insinuate that development money has been misappropriated whereas it is common knowledge that the money in the office of the governor is meant for recurrent expenditure and not for development,” said Mr Mutia.
On the issue of one person receiving huge amounts of money, Mr Mutia said that this was orchestrated by the fact that some employees in the office of the governor had no Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) accounts and therefore one person was receiving payments on their behalf.
“It is the prerogative of the Governor to choose someone who can receive money on behalf of others and that the issue of the money going to a relative is not factual,” said Mr Mutia.
He called on the county workers to continue working hard and not to fall to the tricks of those who were hell-bent to get them out of the track.
Mr Ncamba Mbithi, the Chief of Staff and the accounting officer in the office of the governor added that every government operates with imprest especially when organizing meetings or receiving visitors which are paid when money is received.
“Majority of the government’s activities are run using imprests and this money is released in wholesome once we receive it. The petitioner doesn’t seem to understand this and it is the reason he is talking of huge sums of money going to one person,” said Mr Mbithi.
He added that the petitioner’s document was covering July 2022 to date which are two financial years but he wants people to believe that he was considering one financial year.
“The document has been written selectively in order to serve an unknown purpose by the author. In any case, the budget allocating money to the office of the governor was approved by the County assembly and we are open to any audit as well as investigations by the relevant bodies,” said Mr Mbithi.
