Three former Nyeri county senior officials payed Sh3.7M to a firm illegally- says EACC

By FAITH NYAMAI

@faithnyamai
Fnyamai@ke.nationmedia.com

Three former Nyeri county senior officials awarded and approved payments to a construction company before it had signed a tender contract, a court heard yesterday. The three are charged with misappropriating Sh3.7 Million.

According to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption (EACC ) procurement forensic investigator Adan Gedi Ali the county executive lands and infrastructure John Mwangi Maina surpassed the tender committee mandate and went ahead to notify and award audit tender services to the Pleng limited company.

The county executive finance economics and planning Martin Kanjuaigwa Wamwea and the chief of staff who at that time was the acting accounting officer land, Mr Simon Wachira on their part directed and approved payments of the consultancy services to the company without supporting documents.

“The procurement procedure requires that before any payments are made supporting documents and a contract of award must be signed and attached,” Said Mr Ali.

Mr Ali yesterday  told the Nyeri chief magistrate John Onyiego said the documents he obtained from the county government in the course of his investigations showed that all construction and civil works projects that were awarded in 2013-2014 summed up to Sh 500 M but the audit services were not part of the projects.

It had been agreed that since the county government did not have qualified technical auditors; the procurement department to involve the tender committee.

“The tender committee met   November 18, 2014  and resolved that the tenders should be awarded on a national open tender, they went ahead and placed an advert , but the same advert was later cancelled by the office of county” he told the court.

In regard to the funds to be involved in the audit, the committee had agreed that it should be treated as stand-alone project.

“Before the procurement department could complete the process; the county Executive lands and infrastructure Mr Maina went ahead and wrote a notification letter awarding the tender to Pleng Limited” he said.

He added that “Mr Wamwea was asked by the acting chief officer finance to advice on the payments of the consultancy service to Pleng Limited Company, but he said that he had been informed by Mr Maina that procurement procedures had been followed and directed payments to be made”

Mr Ali said the Pleng limited went ahead and started the audit services without signing a contract and presented payment voucher to the Mr Wachira who had been designated as the accounting officer of lands..

“Without ensuring that crucial documents such as a signed contract of the awarded tender were attached, Mr Wachira signed and approved the payment vouchers” Mr Ali told the court. 

Mr Ali was the eighth and the last prosecution witness to testify in court yesterday.

Mr Maina ,Mr Wamwea and Mr Wachira  are facing six counts of corruption and abuse of office.
They are accused of illegally and improperly authorized the payment of Sh3, 756,962.37 to Pleng Limited without adhering to procurement rules.
They are further charged with willful failure to comply with the law on applicable procurement procedures, abuse of office and failure to comply with applicable procedures of management of funds.
Through their lawyer Edward Were Oonge, they filed a petition last at the high court challenging the constitutionality of the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC). The petition is still pending in court.

END