Forget Kisumu’s Kshs 3.7M cow; fresh details of Meru’s Kshs 4.3M earthworms project emerge

Image result for meru county earthworms

As Kenyans were on Thursday left in shock by Auditor General report that revealed how Kisumu County government bought a single dairy cow for Kshs 3.7 million, the Meru County government is now on the spot for spending millions of shillings on rearing earthworms and black flies in the 2017/2018 financial year, a project that has turned out to be a white elephant.

Governor Kiraitu Murungi was hit by the embarrassing scandal after Auditor-General Edward Ouko revealed the county government paid KSh 4.3 million for the earthworms project without a needs assessment.

Image result for earthworms

In his report, Mr Ouko noted that Ksh2.5 million was given to a supplier for 1,000 eco-tosha materials for earthworms while Ksh1.8 million was used to purchase 600 plastic drums.

Ouko further noted that the plastic drums were intended to be used in the rearing of the earthworms and black flies in the 45 wards.

His report also revealed that after the delivery of the drums, they remained idle at the country stores for six months.

He was also keen to note that the Kiraitu Murungi-led government had inflatuated the price of the drums from Ksh1,000 to Ksh3,000.

Meru County Assembly Agriculture Committee Chairman Paul Bagine said the earthworms project was meant to support poultry farming in the county.

“We are waiting for a report from the executive to look into it. But the project did not proceed because there was no money to execute it,” Mr Bagine said.

Contacted, Meru Agriculture Executive Karwitha Kiugu said, “Give me some time, I will give interesting information on earthworms and insects for animal feeds.”

Also questioned by the auditor-general is the county’s ballooning wage bill for the 4,584 employees, which jumped by Sh1.26 billion in one financial year.

Related image

According to the report, the county paid Sh4.39 billion in employees remuneration in 2017/2018 compared to Sh3.12 billion paid in the 2016/2017 financial year.

The county executive also spent Sh139.8 million on domestic travel and Sh17.8 million on foreign travel. Out of this, Sh6.3 million was not accounted for due to lack of attendance schedules, invitation letters, evidence of travel and back to office reports.

The wage bill is above the set limit of 35 percent of the approved budget as set in the Public Finance Management Act.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *