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Kenya: KPC Probed Over Sh81m Road Cash
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The Nation (Nairobi)
14 May 2008
Posted to the web 14 May 2008
Dominic Wabala
Nairobi
The circumstances under which the Kenya Pipeline Company paid Sh81 million for the rehabilitation of a nine-kilometre earth road are being investigated.
Kenya Pipeline Company refinery: The parliamentary team seeks details on payment for the 9km stretch.
Detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department's Economic and Commercial Crimes Unit were on Monday dispatched to Nakuru to begin enquiries after a recommendation by the Public Investments Committee.
The detectives, led by Mr James Muinde, who is in charge of the unit, have been instructed to follow up on the PIC report and forward their findings to the attorney general.
A letter from the police headquarters early this month instructed CID director, Gatiba Karanja to launch investigations into the fraudulent payment.
Two of the company's former managing directors, Mr Ezekiel Komen and Mr Babu Rao, allegedly approved payments amounting to Sh81.2 million to five companies for the rehabilitation of the access road despite the fact that road construction is not part of KPC's core activities.
On May 30, 1999, KPC paid MAK Consultants Sh7,226,392.80 for the rehabilitation of the road.
Three days later, it remitted a further Sh6,789,667.20 to Kenya Tech Consulting Engineers for the rehabilitation of the same road.
On December 8, 2003, the company paid Songa Ogada & Associates Sh8,636,008.35 and come January 15, 2004, it paid another Sh28,592,696.80 to Tamcon Consulting Engineers for the road's rehabilitation.
Nelliwa Builders & Civil Engineers were paid Sh26,526,896.90 on March 26, 2004, and another Sh3,508,141.05 was remitted as contractual claim for the road on May 6, 2004.
According to a PIC's 2007 reports, a total of Sh81,279,803.10 was forked out for road rehabilitation that was never carried out.
The detectives will be investigating how the contracts were awarded for the same road repeatedly without a tendering process.
Varied upwards
They will also enquire how the contract costs were varied upwards without due consideration.
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The officers are gathering evidence with a view of charging Mr Rao and Mr Komen, who were held responsible for awarding the contracts on a non-competitive basis to Ruaha Concrete Company, which was not registered to undertake public road works.
They will investigate whether the two former managing directors were involved in a conspiracy to defraud the corporation and if there was any abuse of office by them.
Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said police were involved in many more investigations, but would not divulge more details.
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