The Public Accounts Committee chaired by Hon Opiyo Wandayi (Ugunja) today met with the Lake Victoria North Water Works Development Agency to answer to Audit Queries raised by the Office of the Auditor General on dormant loans owed by the Agency totalling to over Kshs 13.1 billion.
The Auditor General’s Report for the National Government Investments and Public enterprise for the Financial Year 2018/2019, had flagged loans totalling to Kshs 84.28 Billion owed by 18 parastatals in the period under scrutiny, which the Committee heard that there are very minimal chances of their settlement.
Appearing before the Committee today, the Agency’s CEO Engineer Samson Peter Gongi in his submission, said that it is highly unlikely that the Water Service Providers in the region will settle the debts owed, since they are now managed by County governments which took over control from the Agencies, and that they have been non-committal on paying the loans.
The Committee, raised concerns with the manner in which water service providing companies operate, stating that they put up dysfunctional water projects, engage in corrupt deals, and leave the common mwananchi to find alternative water sources like sinking personal boreholes at unnecessarily high costs.
The CEO Engineer Gongi, speaking on behalf of the agency and in reference to the recurrent failure to settle huge loans, suggested that the only way that the money can be recovered is if it is deducted as a first charge on all County Governments’ revenues until all loans are settled.
