BY NED GAGAHE
The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) audit into the Economic Stimulus Package has uncovered irregularities in applications submitted.
The report released by OAG found some applications were all on a single hand-written page with the same pen.
This finding was presented in a case study presented in the report to highlight the issues found amongst the small number of applications made available to the OAG.
The report revealed that there were the group of applications that were received from seven villages in one province.
All were prepared by the same person as the handwriting and format were identical. The argument used to support the request in each case was.
“We have a lot of local chickens roaming the village vulnerable to dogs and prey birds. Therefore, we need your assistance for proper keeping and feeding for cash.”
The report stated that there were two other sections for each application. One provided the name of the village, ward, and constituency and the other provided details of the materials needed to cage and support the chickens – chicken wire, nails, chainsaw hire, chicken food etc.
The report revealed that the amounts requested ranged from $2,719 to $3,860.
The amount approved in each case was $15,000, significantly above the amount requested.
