Members of the National Assembly on Tuesday put the Kenya Rural Roads Authority(KeRRA) to task to explain how the agency ended up being fined Ksh16 million over a breach of contract with a private security company.
KeRRA Director General Philemon Kandie was, however, unable to explain to the lawmakers how the state agency breached the contract that led to the eventual loss of millions of shillings.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee on Energy and Commercial Services, Kandie told the lawmakers that the security firm was contracted by the agency to provide security services across its 47 offices in the country.
‘’The firm is one of the security firms we contracted to give us security in our offices,’’ Kandie stated.
‘’The contract had an arbitration clause. So when the payment was not made, there were arbitration proceedings where we participated and raised a defense on behalf of KeRRA,’’ an official from the agency argued.
The security company was to provide the services at KeRRA’s regional headquarters offices for a period of two years according to the initial agreement documents signed between the two.
The lawmakers were told that the agreement was to cost the taxpayer a total of Ksh29 million before the breach by KeRRA, with the latter being forced to pay a total of Ksh45 million.
This was after the security firm sought the court's intervention to help it recover the millions deal that it had landed with the road’s agency.
The MPs were, however, not convinced by the responses from the KeRRA officials wondering what might have been at the center of play leading to the firm being awarded the lumpsum.
The members also raised concerns after they established that there were other companies that the agency had not honoured her contractual engagements with, yet it was only the security firm that was paid.
However, he was unable to provide details of the 47 offices that the company was supposed to cover, raising questions on the transparency of the deal.
‘’The details of the offices I might not know it off head but I can give you that list,’’ Kandie uttered to the shock of the lawmakers.
‘’You are going with what people say in English an egg on the face. I don’t know what it means, you cannot know the details of the contract,’’ David Pkosing, the committee chair, wondered.
