State House Comptroller Katoo Ole Metito on Thursday appeared before the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to answer questions regarding the payment of Ksh869 million to a medical company for projects in Nairobi.
The payments were made by the Office of the President during former President Uhuru Kenyatta's regime for the construction of medical facilities in Nairobi under the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS).
MPs led by the committee chair John Mbadi had questioned why the OP made the payments to the company yet it had not completed the construction of 19 hospitals in the city.
In his response, Metito confirmed that the company was paid before the completion of the NMS projects.
However, he added that most of the projects had been done with only three medical facilities set to be complete.
Metito maintained that the top office has already made plans to ensure that the facilities are finished on time and made operational.
"I wish to state that as of August 15, 2023, eight Level Three health facilities and eight Level Two hospitals had been completed and operationalised," he confirmed to the Committee.
On the other hand, the State House official was also questioned over the pending bills at the OP which stands at over Ksh15.9 billion.
The auditor's report revealed that out of the pending Ksh15.9 billion bills, Ksh14.8 billion were related to NMS.
State House, on the other hand, has pending bills amounting to Ksh1.1 billion.
The majority of the NMS pending bill involves payments for the various development works that were done by the defunct NMS which took over a number of roles from the county government on February 25, 2020.
"Metito in his response noted that part of the pending bills had been settled noting that the delay was occasioned by budget cuts by the National Treasury," Parliament reported.
