The County Public Accounts Committee, led by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’, has today directed the County Assembly of Laikipia to follow the procurement process to the letter when awarding tenders to suppliers.  

This comes after the Auditor General informed the Committee that the County Assembly of Laikipia made two payments amounting to Kshs1.4 million to two hotels for conference facilities for Members of the County Assembly and staff, despite them not being among the prequalified suppliers of the assembly during the Financial Year under review. 

“The procurement process used to identify the hotels was not indicated or clarified. Therefore, it could not be confirmed whether the services were procured in accordance with the requirements of the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Act, 2015,” said the Office of the Auditor General. 

While considering the County Assembly’s response to the Report of the Auditor General for the Financial Year ended 30th June 2020, the Members of the Committee expressed their dismay with the response of the County Assembly that it had a framework contract with several hotels in different localities, that allowed them to provide services to the assembly without going through the normal procurement process. 

“You can share a prequalified list of prequalified suppliers with the Executive and other Government entities. That is allowed in the procurement law. But when you write to us that prequalification doesn’t apply to hotels, we cannot accept your response,” Senator Kajwang’ said. 

“The law is very clear. You deliberately broke the law. These are the things that make us feel sad because you’re defiling devolution,” Senator Onyonka added.  

On his part, the Speaker of the County Assembly of Laikipia, Hon. Lantano Nabaala, who led the County Assembly’s delegation to the Senate, committed to ensuring that all suppliers who are awarded tenders by the County Assembly are prequalified going forward.