BY DICKENS WASONGA
The government has issued a tough warning to civic leaders in Nyanza to act responsibly or face legal action.
The warning was delivered to the councillors by the area provincial local government officer Mr. Isaac Kirui during this year’s budget presentation in Kisumu.
The PLGO was angered by what he termed as a crude and unbecoming behavior by a section of civic leaders from the province who have taken it upon themselves to harass and manhandle chief officers over claims of misuse of funds,especially the LATF.
Mr Kirui reminded the leaders that they should stick to their role of policy formulation as the directors of the local authorities but leave the administrative work to chief officers.
He said the issue of who should be posted to any civic authority was the responsibility of the PS and no councillor had the power to dictate to the ministry over who is to be a chief officer.
The PLGO said the law was very clear on how the councils should handle cases of corruption where a clerk or a treasurer is suspected to have stolen public funds but not to take the law into their own hands.
”We have handled many such cases amicably and we don’t want to create a culture where
where our officers are manhandled by councillors who seem not to be a ware of what the law says.Am not trying to defend any officer but let us follow due process of the law.”he said.
He mentioned that in one of the councils in the region the police had to intervene to save an embattled clerk who had been ejected from his office by a group of civic leaders who alleged that he stole funds allocated to the authority by the government through LATF.
The said councillors were arrested last week and charged by a Keroka court.
Mr Kirui said endless bickering between chief officers and the leaders was to blame for poor service delivery which has dogged the province.
He pointed out that his office will not however sit back and watch as corrupt officers loot monies they are entrusted to manage on behalf of the members of the public who pay taxes to run the authorities.
During the budget which was read by the Kisumu county council finance chairman in Holo, the council said it plans to spend a total of ksh.53m to give services to the people they serve.
The council noted that they will be able to raise ksh. 9m from through revenue collection and will aso recieve 36m fro LATF.
Amongst other on going projects the council plans to finish the the Kobewa water project which was funded to the tune of ksh.9m by the EU.
The project will see over 200 water selling kiosks built and is projected to benefit over 2000 residents of Kombewa and its environs.
ENDS.
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Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:31:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dickens Wasonga
Subject: GOVERNMENT WARNS COUNCILLORS AGAINST EJECTING CHIEF OFICERS.