Nairobi — The Kenya Commercial Bank has been named in the Sh24 billion edible oil deal in a latest report by the Auditor General.
According to the data, the Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC) board of directors on October 5, 2022, authorized the KNTC management to open a bank account with KCB for the operationalization of the edible oil program.
The report further stated that the board also authorized the management to seek approval from the National Treasury to procure a line of credit of Sh15 billion from KCB through the specially permitted procurement procedure for importing essential food commodities.
The authorization came a day after the KNTC managing director tabled the requests for approval to the board.
The program tasked KNTC with the responsibility of importing and distributing essential commodities such as rice, cooking oil, powdered milk, and others.
The report, however, noted that KCB and the corporation, on December 7, 2022, signed an initial letter of offer of Sh10.77 billion instead of the approved Sh15 billion, and thereafter, on 10th January 2023, signed a loan enhancement letter with a total facility of Sh24 billion, an issue that the auditor general termed as 'not clear'.
"The KCB and the Corporation signed an initial letter of offer dated 07 December 2022 of Kshs 10.77 Billion, instead of the approved Kshs15 Billion. Thereafter, a loan enhancement letter was signed on 10 January 2023, with a total facility of Kshs 24 Billion," the report read.
"However, it was not clear why on 07 December 2022, KCB could not initially offer to the corporation Kshs 15 Billion as approved by the national treasury and instead offered only 10.77 Billion, and on 10 January 2023, a month later, agreed to increase the amount to Kshs 24 Billion," it added.
According to the audit, the quantities approved under the edible oil program were 7.5 million of 20-liter Jerrycans.
However, only 2.8 million 20-liter Jerrycans delivered were procured, out of which 2.5 million 20-liter Jerrycans were delivered to both the Port of Mombasa and Internal Container Depot (ICD) Nairobi by the various suppliers.
Nonethless, neither of the suppliers was dated or approved.
