How Governors Transfer Millions to a Secret CoG Account to Hire Choppers

Details have emerged of how Governors channel public funds to a secret account operated by the Council of Governors (CoG) to hire choppers.

To beat the strict procurement guidelines that would have exposed them, the county bosses remit excess money to the CoG.

According to Sunday Standard, out of Ksh250 million being probed by auditors at least Ksh150 million has been used to hire helicopters.

Only the chairman of the council, currently Governor Josphat Nanok, is allowed privilege of using choppers while on official duties.

Governors who want to enjoy the same privilege make extra contributions on top of the amount required from them and the cash is wired to the operational account from where they hire choppers.

"At CoG, only the chairman has the privilege of using a chopper while on official duties. This must be logged in as official to be legal. However, governors have been using choppers but the payments cannot be tracked back to their counties,' a source intimated.

Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) has been probing the scam and interrogated officers who are involved in the scheme.

"An internal auditor who raised the matter was fired and some of the external ones as well as the EACC officers were compromised," the source remarked.

On average, it costs about Ksh 170,000 to hire a chopper for one hour in Kenya.

"To get the chopper, you send an email to the CEO of the Council of Governors who picks for you the chopper from the list of the prequalified companies and will generate an invoice to be settled by debiting the county account," Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya told the Standard.

It has been reported that some of the choppers were hired from a company associated with a former governor.

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