The Ward Development Fund at the Nairobi City County Government remains a mirage and looting ground for city cartels involving respective County Assembly members.
The fund was created to help MCAs boost service delivery and complement County Government’s efforts at the ward level but it now looks like it is a fund mainly operating to give elected Ward Representatives to float tenders and loot in collaboration with County Officers managing the fund.
It has now emerged that contractors engaged in WDF programs (which are mostly hot air) have to first pay a certain amount in commission to senior WDF officers and respective area MCAs before launch of any ‘project’.
Most projects under WDF are hardly picking up as MCAs are heavily depending on projects by the County Government and things are not easy for them considering Nairobi has only so far spend 3% of its funds available for development budget.
It is understood that Engineer Eston Kimathi who is the Acting Director WDF is the one collecting logbooks from WDF contractors who should part ways with 20% advance commission.
The MCAs and the WDF are believed to have worked on a looting master plan estimated to be 517 million where payments are due on 2nd or 3rd of April.
On the spot are Finance Chief Officer Asha Abdi and his Finance CECM boss Charles Kerich, Martha Wambugu and other officers in the finance department.
City Hall has always been on the spotlight over diversion of budgeted funds from the Ward Development kitty.
There have been serious claims over schemes to divert the funds with several processes having been invoiced and apparently cleared successfully at the Internet Banking.
The fund has been under scrutiny over invoicing Sh100 million under vote 5325 through an officer named and identified as Pamela Achieng but it is not clear whether her password was stolen or not.
In the same above deal, reports indicated that Engineer Eston Kimathi had approached Martha to help the sector access its funds but he was referred to Charles Kerich the Finance Executive who is believed to have asked for a letter.
The WDF kitty was allocated Sh1.9 billion in the 2023/24 budget but the fund has been shrouded in controversy with detectives now suspecting hundreds of illegal transactions have been processed with little going to the wards.
Controversy at the WDF office started when former CEO Josephine Kithu was forcefully ejected out of office, sent on forced leave then redeployed but with no official communication.
As established by the County Assembly Labour Committee, the CEO was removed and Kimathis quickly appointed in an acting capacity.
The letter said the officer was supposed to be assigned other duties on the Finance docket. However, this has never happened despite reporting to work daily.
It is not clear whether Kithu was given another position or not with efforts to reach her for comment unsuccessful.
Concerned parties now want the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to probe all transactions, including invoices and vouchers under the WDF probed.
“Let the EACC or even the DCI probe all commitments and transactions done since July 2023 to January 2024 and they will be shocked,” an insider source revealed.
The Sh100 million stolen was for suspected ghost supplies under the WDF.
Under the PFM Act, funds can only be transferred from one sector to another through a supplementary budget.
However at City Hall, senior accountants and the treasury department have mastered ways of stealing budgets from other sectors in a well-coordinated plan.
Authorities are still following up on a complaint letter from Chief Officer Disaster Management and Coordination Bramuel Simiyu.
The letter dated 10/11/2023 is titled; Unauthorized Commitments and Transactions on IFMIS for the disaster management and coordination sector.
According to Bramuel, a series of irregular and unauthorized commitments and transactions were made on the IFMIS platform affecting the sector’s budget.
The payments made were for ghost suppliers prompting him to write to the Finance Chief Officer Asha Abdi who authorizes payments on the IFMIS platform. Chief Officers for various sectors are always the first approvers for any payments to be made.
“ It has come to my attention that there have been and there continues to be number of irregular and/or unauthorized commitments and transactions made on the IFMIS platform that affects the sector budget,” the letter reads in its opening paragraph
It further reads: “As the sector’s Accounting Officer and the First Approver on the IFMIS system,these commitments done without my knowledge and approval have the potential effect of affecting our ability to deliver on the programs we have committed to in our ADP,lead to audit queries and/or contribute to potential loss of public funds.
