KISUMU COUNTY TENDER DEALS CUT IN BARS

Startling revelations were made last week that Kisumu county government tender documents in relations to construction of projects were being exchanged in bars and restaurants and that reps political cronies and relatives were the one favoured in the dealings.

The disclosure came up during a heated debate on a motion aimed at introducing Project Implementation Bill and the MCA said they had established that over 40pc are lost by the county government when awarding tenders irregularly.

Making his contribution to the debate, the East Seme rep representative Aggrey Ogosi charged: “Most of the Kisumu county tenders are awarded in bars and restaurants to briefcase contractors. Because these brief case contractors are incompetent, they sell the tenders to others, especially their relatives and friends who end up doing shoddy work. And during the process, the county loses 40pc of the public funds,” said Ogosi.

An MCA who requested for his anonymity told this writer that it has been the practice that one contractor  applies for as many as six or eight tenders, but the county assembly has decided to discourage this practices so that every eligible contractor can tender under the law as required.

Another report says one MCA recently grabbed all the tender papers and made his way out of the office, and he is understood to have distributed the tender papers to his cronies and friends.

Another dreadful rumour making rounds in Kisumu city and its environs say that the county government may be losing millions of shillings through the highly inflated medical supplies invoices and bills.

The medical supplies section is now under the devolved government system. The county office of the governor is the section now tasked with the responsibility of dealing with the medical supplies to the medical stores in all hospitals and health centres within the county. And the drugs supply bills and invoices handled by the county assembly is. The county handling medical supplies invoices and bills, which were previously handled by the  government. But in the new arrangement, the county government under the devolved system and is now under he assembly’s office of the governor.

Matters related to medical supplies invoices, according to a source, are being discussed regularly at a posh restaurant, which is located at the Mega City Mall near Kachok. The same source revealed that invoices are being deliberately inflated to create room for “kick-backs” of the money targeted for siphoning.

Concerned residents have called upon the government to carry out forensic auditing of Kisumu county assembly payment bills and also inspect the medical stores and compare the bills with what is at stock in these stores.