Questions abound over how a contractor was paid for the construction of two roads in Migori County – one partly done and another still remaining a huge bush.
Kurunzi has documents and images of the whole deal where the County government may have paid in excess of KSh25 million for Banana and Kasalah-Midoti-Osingo border roads but while the county maintains “both roads were done perfectly and to the standard”, Kurunzi established the contrary.
Other allegations against the Okoth Obado-led government include flouting of procurement procedures in the award of the two and other roads tenders, fingers pointing at one of the influential directors.
Allegedly, companies associated with the director have been getting all the tenders and it is believed the man, once a renowned businessman in Migori, are given to companies associated with him.
There is no competitive bidding as tenders are issued arbitrarily in the county, perhaps the only one yet to embrace technology in their procurement processes.
“Advertisements are merely a public relations exercise because the winner of the tender is already predetermined,” a source tells Kurunzi, pointing to the rot that is happening in the county.
“Everything is done manually and that is by design because the notion is that if they go digital it might be difficult to play the games they play.”
Kurunzi is still on the trail of another several roads to establish the truth about allegations of poor workmanship and altering of standards to enable contractors and their benefactors (often high-ranking officers of the county government) pocket money.
All the documents are already in our possession, currently being analyzed against the facts on the ground.
One of our sources says the contractors even use county equipment and operators to execute tenders, meaning they incur minimum expenses.
A county official, when contacted on the question of payments to the contractors, said: “One contractor paid another one not yet.”
It is not clear which of the two contractors has been paid but what is certain is that the work has not been done and where there is semblance of work, it is incomplete.
