The office of the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua spend over Sh. 10 million on office curtains last year. This has been revealed by a report by the Auditor General Nancy Gathungu.
The report shows that Rigathi Gachagua’s office spent Sh. 10.27 million on office curtains and Sh. 7.87 million on office furniture for a total of Sh. 18.14 million on both curtains and furniture.
“During the year under review, the Office procured curtains and furniture amounting to Sh. 10,272,524 and Sh. 7,869,700 respectively all totalling Sh. 18,142,224 through request for quotations thereby splitting the procurement,” the report by the Auditor General stated.
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“This was contrary to Section 54 (1) of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 which requires that no procuring entity may structure procurement as two or more procurements for the purpose of avoiding the use of a procurement procedure except where prescribed.”
The report by the Auditor General further revealed that Gachagua’s office did not pay suppliers Sh. 58.2 million and instead pushed the bills to the current financial year.
The report has further unearthed instances where suppliers issued invoices for goods and services that had not been requested.
“Documents provided for audit revealed various conflicts in dates from the time of initiating and processing the procurements for payment, with some invoice dates preceding user requisitions. This is contrary to Section 53 (1) of the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act, 2015 which states that, all procurements by State Organs and public entities are subject to the rules and principles of the Act,” the report stated.
The report has revealed mega spending by the country’s senior offices that go contrary to the government’s call on austerity.
The report comes hot on the heels of the National Treasury’s budgetary review report that has revealed that State House spent Sh. 5.37 billion in the six-month period to December 2023. This spending saw the State House overshoot its allocated budget by Sh. 447 million.
