Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has said that the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) is emerging as the new face of cartels in Nairobi.
In a statement to newsrooms, Sonko said NMS is determined to restore ghost workers into the County Payroll and pay ghost suppliers in the Pending Bills.
Sonko said that he reduced the pending bills from 64 Billion shillings to 11 Billion.
He was responding to NMS statements before the Senate that the unfortunate incident witnessed at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital of a mother giving birth on the roadside can be attributed to NMS inability to access the County Payroll
“Out of their pursuit to perpetuate impunity, as it has become their trade, the NMS made illicit arrangements to pay the staff seconded to them a few days ago. It has since emerged that they paid salaries to dead people and retirees, returning Nairobi to the culture of paying ghost workers that I had eliminated since I assumed office” Sonko said.
He added that the Nairobi County Public Service Board remains the employer of all the seconded staff, and nothing stops the seconded staff from executing their duties as per the contracts of employment.
Sonko regrated that the NMS has resorted to providing the public with petty excuses to cover up for their gross incompetence and ineptitude since they assumed delegated responsibility over four transferred functions.
“I find it strange and ridiculous that they have been throwing around funny figures to entertain the public, while creating the impression that I have “refused” to fund the NMS. The NMS is fully aware of the fact that there is no law in Kenya that allows a County Government to finance the operations of the Office of the President where they are domiciled.,” he said.
The Governor added that NMS has resorted to cheap blackmail which will not solve the legal challenges.
He warned NMS against painting his administration as failed.
Sonko added that NMS has nothing to show apart from a few colored pavements in the City Centre.
“Garbage has been piling up across many parts of the City, the lethargy that I had eliminated in our public healthcare sector has been reintroduced, the Pumwani incident being a case at hand, and overall service delivery has been hampered due to the confusion they have introduced, as they continue to pursue petty politics that are not adding any value to Nairobi residents,” Sonko bashed NMS.
He added that his administration is under pressure from the Auditor General and the Ministry of Health to account for the over 294 million shillings that was allocated to Nairobi to fight the COVID19 pandemic.
Sonko said NMS has refused to account for these monies, yet they purport to be unable to perform their functions “due to lack of funds.”
The Governor added that his administration paid over 120 Million Shillings to health workers in July this year, following the Presidential directive to motivate those on the frontline in battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the issue of lack of support and cooperation from his administration does not arise.
“The Nairobi City County Government retains responsibility over the transferred functions, as provided for under Article 187 (2) (b) of the Constitution of Kenya. 13. I therefore urge the NMS to desist from the sideshows and blame games and focus on delivering on their mandate within the law, as we were tasked by the President a few weeks ago” he said.
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