A watchdog Committee of the Senate has accused Busia Governor Paul Otuoma of doing little to implement the resolutions of the Senate in relation to the financial reports of the county for the 2022/23 financial year.

At the sitting held at the Agricultural Training Centre in Busia town, the County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) expressed its displeasure with the Governor for failing to take disciplinary action against some of his officers who failed to provide relevant documents to the auditor general in line with the requirements of the Public Audit Act.

In its report, which the House approved in March 2025, the Committee had recommended to the Governor to take administrative action against officers who failed to provide documents to the auditors at the time of audit in line with Section 62 of the Public Audit Act.

The Committee had ordered the Governor to provide a status report on the action taken to the Office of the Auditor General within 60 days after the adoption of the report.

However, when the Governor appeared before the Committee on Tuesday, October 6, 2025, he did not provide evidence of compliance with the directive.

“In the absence of any evidence that you complied with the recommendations of the Senate, this Committee has no choice but ask the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to intervene and investigate these matters,” ruled Senator Moses Kajwang’, the chair of the Committee.

However, the Governor defended himself and assuring the Committee that he had taken disciplinary measures against some culpable officers and will still do the same where it is proved that they failed in executing their mandate as required by the law,” he said.

The documents in question involve an accumulated figure of Sh176 million whose expenditure was not supported by documents. Out of the amount, Sh16.5 million was used for domestic travel and subsistence, another Sh38 million was used for foreign travel and subsistence.

On an unsupported expenditure of Sh16.5 million, the Auditor informed the Committee that the county failed to provide any documentation; invitations to meetings/conferences, attendance registers or any other evidence of travel and that the late surrender of imprests had not been subjected to interest charges as required under the applicable financial regulations.

The Committee, through the resolution of the House, directed the County Executive to initiate recovery of the funds within 60 days, failure to which EACC was to undertake investigations and institute recovery proceedings.

During the audit, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu sampled payments amounting Sh18.5 million and observed that a local Tours and Travel firm was paid Sh14.2 million which represent over 80 per cent of the contracts for provision of air travel agency services. However, there was no explanation on how the firm emerged the winning bidder so often and the procurement documents were not provided for audit review.

The total expenditure in the hospitality supplies and services account amounted to Sh146 million during the year. The amount includes payments totaling Sh8.3 million whose supporting attendance lists were not matching with the local service orders (LSOs), and tender opening and evaluation minutes, work plans and activity budgets were not provided for audit verification.

The County Executive could not provide differences in attendance minutes and LSOs, tender opening minutes forcing the Committee to refer the matter to the EACC for investigation and recovery of any funds established to have been irregularly spent.

Salary records expenditure revealed that wages totalling Sh119 million which was paid through a manual payroll system involving 47 employees aged above 60 years who were not captured in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database (IPPD). 

Whereas the manual payroll may be prone to error and other forms of misstatement, the Governor argued that some of the officers had previously served in other agencies before being transferred to the Busia County Executive.

The officers included two members of the County Executive Committee, one advisor on economic matters and the chair of the County Public Service Board and the remaining who are persons with disability.

In her report, the Auditor General has questioned why the county was paying them outside IPPD. Whereas the IPPD does not capture individuals beyond the 60 year age, it was not clear why the category included PWDs.

During the Meeting, the Committee raised issues with an audit query that appears to have fallen off the radar. The query, first reported in the 2022/23 financial year, involves the construction of Governor’s Lounge. The contract sum of the project was Sh29 million. However, the EACC got involved and seized all documents related to the contract. 

However, Senator Kajwang expressed concern that the matter was included in the subsequent audit report for the year 2024.

He directed the office of the auditor to keep the matter alive until the EACC investigations are completed.

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