Meru Finance officer resigns after declining to sign dubious deal

The Meru County Assembly Public Accounts Committee is set to hold a sitting Monday, to commence investigations following the resignation of the county’s Chief Finance officer over allegations of being coerced to make dubious payments.

Committee Chairman Daniel Kiogora, who s also the Abothuguchi West Ward Representative, revealed that during his resignation, the officer alleged that he was being forced to make payments to Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital for supplies which never existed.

Kiogora said they are yet to establish the motive of the county officials who were pushing the officer to authorize the payment of 15 million shillings for food supplies at Meru Level Five Hospital, yet no such supplies were due.

The officer was also due to make payments to two media houses operating in Meru, where one was to receive 12 million shillings, while the other was to get 3 million shillings.

Kiogora added that Mr James Mutari Muthaura alleged that he had declined the directive from the top boss and the CEC finance to execute payments to the two media houses.

The chairman said it is unfortunate that development projects have been delaying due to untimely allocation of funds from the department.

He regretted that the County Assembly, through the supplementary budget, has been allocating funds to various development projects but their allocations have been altered by the executive.

In his statement, the Abothuguchi MCA said that this was a scheme to embezzle public funds saying that Meru Governor Peter Munya should keep his eyes open to see the rot in the Finance department.

Since the devolved system of governance took effect, several Directors of Budget and COs in the finance department have been moved to other departments, resigned or sacked.

Contractors have also not been receiving their funds on time due to the delaying of the development funds thus stalling of various projects.

On a telephone conversation, Meru County Director of Communication Simon Kobia said that the Chief Officer had not made any official communication on his resignation.

He said that Mutari had only sent a text message to Chief Officer Meru County Public Service department Mr. Moses Nabea notifying him of his resignation from the position.

Kobia said that in a text message that read; “I resign from Meru County. Liase with CEC-Finance and Mwenda Ag. Director Accounts”, the officer had not cited any reason for his action, with the Communications Director saying that they are yet to hear from him over the allegations trending in the media.