Bungoma Governor Kenneth Lusaka has vowed to streamline the County Schorlaship program and clean the County payroll.
Speaking at St. Jude Catholic church Muanda in Bumula Constituency, Lusaka said no amount of coercion nor intimidation will stop him from pursuing the course.
He said preliminary reports by three task forces had revealed shocking anomalies in the Schorlaship and County payroll which urgently need to be addressed.
” Some schools continued to receive monies for Schorlaship beneficiaries who already cleared form four and left while others had none exisistent beneficiaries,” said Lusaka.
Lusaka said, all this came against the back drop that there were so many needy students who were at home due to lack of school fees.
“Why should the County pay for ghost students yet we have genuine needy students staying at home due to lack of school fees?” He queried
He refuted claims that his decision was out of witch – hunt and scrapping the Scholarship program.
“This is a noble idea that was being done wrongly with massive graft,” he revealed
The Governor at the same time said he will clean up the County payroll saying preliminary reports had shown that the County pays staff who don’t work.
” In one incident we called a person who receives salary from the County Ministry of Health only for the person to say he works in a hotel in Nairobi,” said Lusaka.
He further said that village administrators will not be fired but instead the list will be cleaned to have only bonafide people.
” Some people who were hired had zero papers while others are beyond the employement age of government,” noted Lusaka
The Governor also used the opportunity to campaign for Ford Kenya Senatorial candidate Wafula Wakoli describing him as a young energetic leader who is best suited for the seat.
” We have been saying we will empower youths and this is a great opportunity to do exactly that ,” said Lusaka.
He said he was optimistic that Wakoli will emerge victorious in the coming by elections.