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Officers from the anti-graft watchdog Tuesday descended on Kericho County offices and took away files as part of an investigation into a controversial Sh97 million tender for expansion of the Kerenga airstrip.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) team made an impromptu visit this morning to the countys procurement office in search of crucial documents to help them look into claims that the tendering process for upgrade of the airstrip was irregular.
The raid follows whistleblowing from Belgut Member of Parliament, Nelson Koech, who wrote a letter to the commission asking it to probe the tender award.
“We have launched investigations into the airport issue. There are claims of procurement irregularities among other issues which we will be looking at. We will probe the issue objectively,” said EACC official Yasin Amaro, adding that officers found culpable will be arrested.
“Once investigations are complete, the law will follow its course and the arrest and prosecutions of individuals suspected of flouting procurement laws will commence,” he said.
Mr Koech drew EACCs attention to the alleged alteration of a requirement that eligible bidders have National Construction Authority (NCA) 3 qualification.
Three months ago, the MP raised an alarm over the tendering process, claiming the company awarded the tender used fake documents and was a proxy firm belonging to the Chief Executive Committee Members for roads who, by law, should not seek a contract due to his position.
“There is a clear rot and theft in Kericho County and I have written to the Ethics and Anticorruption Commission (EACC) to investigate several cases of misuse of public funds in the county; from non-remittance or banking of revenue collected in the county which is unaccounted for, to the tender on expansion of Kerenga airstrip,” Mr Koech told journalists in Kericho.
“I have information on how that particular company faked documents, bank statements and how the CEC in charge of that section colluded with them in filling the documents so that they could get kickbacks of the same. I have made those revelations to the EACC and they have all the documents they will need,” he added.
Not a priority
Plans to expand Kerenga had been opposed by a section of MCAs on grounds that it was not a priority and that Governor Paul Chepkwony was bulldozing his way to have it built.
Whereas the Assembly later slashed the budget to Sh25 million, Mr Koech wondered why the executive had inflated the bill to almost Sh100 million.
Mr Koech, who was initially in the camp that supported Prof Chepkwony in the expansion bid, has since backtracked after what he termed as realisation that it was a scheme being used by particular CECs who double up as contractors in Kericho to loot taxpayer funds.
“In the wisdom of the Assembly, the upgrade of the airstrip should have cost between Sh15 million and Sh25 million in case of variation. But the money allocated in the tender is Sh97 million,” he said.
In a letter he wrote the EACC boss, he said the executive advertised the tender and went ahead to make dubious changes midway from permit type NCA 2 (National Construction Authority), which requires financial and machinery strength (showing that the company has the ability to undertake a job worth Sh100 million), to a lower level of NCA3 to suit individuals that they wanted to give the tender.
He also asked the anti-graft agency to conduct a lifestyle audit of officers involved in the running of affairs at the county and in particular the CEC for roads whose docket is directly in charge not only Kerenga airstrip but also infrastructure works done in the past.
He went ahead to invite EACC to probe the much hyped Sh98 million case against the British government for colonial injustices, terming it a pure scheme of conning Kericho residents and enrich few individuals.
The EACC team said it will seek orders to freeze accounts of certain top officials believed to have had a hand in the tender.
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