Governor Otuoma under fire for paying consultant Sh4.9 million

Busia Governor Paul Otuoma is on the spot after an audit report exposed questionable spending and poor revenue collection in his administration for the financial year ending June 30, 2024.

According to the Auditor General’s report, the county paid Sh4.98 million to a consultant tasked with confirming the classification of a hospital that was already listed as a Level 5 facility.

The Senate County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC), chaired by Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’, grilled the governor on Tuesday over what members termed as blatant misuse of taxpayers’ money.

“This reads like a fictional story, Governor — that you gave a consultancy Sh4.98 million to advise you on whether the hospital should be Level 5 when it was already Level 5. This one is drama,” Kajwang’ said.

Kitui Senator Enock Wambua also questioned the rationale behind hiring the consultant, saying the task fell under the Ministry of Health and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council.

“What do you need consultancy services for? There’s already a clear process for a facility to move from one level to another, it’s about service provision,” he said.

Faced with mounting pressure, the governor admitted there were inconsistencies in how health facilities were classified in the county.

“There was just an arbitrary registration in the county to say that this is now a facility Level 4 or Level 5,” Dr Otuoma said, without directly addressing why a consultant was engaged.

Senators also raised concerns over a sharp decline in the county’s revenue collection, particularly from parking fees and physical planning charges, warning that millions could have been lost through corruption.

Kajwang’ cited figures show that the physical planning and development department collected Sh4.9 million in the previous year but only Sh2 million in 2023/2024.

“So where did the rest of the money go?” the committee chair demanded.

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna said that the 70 per cent drop in revenue should have prompted immediate internal investigations.

“If you were brought numbers showing a 70 per cent decline, Governor, you should have already asked for an explanation from your chief officer,” he said.

The report further revealed that Busia County officials have been conducting official business through personal email accounts, a breach of government protocol that exposes sensitive information and raises questions about accountability.

Auditors warned that such practices indicate weak internal controls and disregard for public sector information security standards.

The Senate committee has since ordered the governor to submit a detailed report explaining the consultancy expenditure, the decline in revenue, and steps being taken to secure official communication channels.