“A flower tree appears innocent but is a serpent under it — that saying aptly describes the Bungoma Governor WANGAMATI. Since his assumption of power the Governor has immorally and unscrupulously tried so much to put the county under his arms often through clandestinely subtle maneuvers”.Said a county official.
Interviewing an MCA from Bumula constituency on condition of anonymity, he said, “Unlike other governors who will choose one or two huge projects to benefit from by doing them through proxies, Wangamati wants to control and benefit from almost all projects including classroom tenders.”
Jeremiah as famously known, former director of procurement who has been moved to Tongaren Sub County could not speak when we tried to get his views. But sources indicate his transfer was necessitated by his hard line stance and refusal to dance to the tune of the master.
The ministry of health headed by Dr. Walela who’s totally green on the affairs in his docket, is the worst department at the county. Walela with his ilk spend most of their evenings in tourist hotels and other big clubs in town. It’s understood that most junior officers are counting days to 2022. “If an election were to be held today, 90% of us won’t vote for this administration,” said a staff member.
Most MCAs now are frustrated because they cannot face the electorate at this time in the second year since august 2017 and no tangible projects launched. An MCA from Tongaren constituency said that tenders have been disqualified twice in the ministry of education and health just because the governor has not gotten his share. He said, “After we demonstrated we agreed that the process commences and done expeditiously to completion but seemingly the Governor has disqualified them again for the third time after evaluation had been done.”
The governor has set up a group known us “Due diligence” that’s responsible for re-evaluation of tenders after evaluation has been done by the procurement officers. The fellows are responsible to respond to the interest of their master if the evaluation officers fail to meet them all.
As WANGAMATI prepares for 2022, sources indicate that those who secure tenders must deposit a certain percent in a certain basket in readiness to finance 2022 polls. This has led to horse-trading and skullduggery that has culminated into the formation of the “Due diligence” group responsible for re-evaluation of tenders to pave way for the preferred companies.
From our sources, the contractors who have genuinely secured tenders have been tasked to pay evaluation officers over Sh. 200000 for the tenders to be approved. One contractor told us that he and others parted with Sh. 200000 to pay evaluation officers to obtain construction of classroom tenders. The evaluation officers who held their seating in Busia town demanded at least Sh. 200000 to approve the tenders. The governor himself is not aware of this daylight corruption according to our sources.
Sources close the county CEO indicate he’s ready for impeachment if need be. Roads alone have given him large sums of cash especially road construction and he’s satisfied with the earnings.“Looking at the happenings in the county, one wonders whether WANGAMATI was a snake oil sold to the electorate. The electorate appear armed to the teeth to unseat the seemingly failing Governor!” MCA from Bumula uttered.
