Another Ksh6.3 billion scandal is the latest addition to what appears to be unending series of massive looting and plunder of public coffers.
Internal audit reports have revealed how taxpayers lost the money from the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) through fictitious claims, illegal inflation of prices and payments to companies and individuals who apparently never offered any services neither supplied goods.
According to the report, KETRACO paid one of the contractors idling fees for 21 months doing nothing as claim for his workforce and equipment at a rate of Ksh108 million per month.
[caption caption="Uhuru with KETRACO officials at Garissa sub station"]
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This is after landowners blocked a project for 54 months yet the KETRACO allowed the contractor to keep 100 percent of its staff.
Prudent practice would have required the contractor to instead keep a skeleton staff until matters had been resolved.
Additionally, the contractor is said to have laid additional claims with KETRACO due to the overheads occasioned by the delay running beyond the stipulated contract schedule.
The report further indicated that some foreigners were being paid up to Ksh200,000 per day working with the firm.
The result of such glaring misappropriations was a Ksh3.8 billion bill which was passed on to the Kenyan taxpayers.
Besides, the audit report has highlighted that contracts whose prices greatly varied beyond the set 20 percent variation limit in accordance with the procurement law.
For instance, one of the projects at KETRACO showed a variation of up to 86 percent accruing additional charges of Ksh430 million.
[caption caption="Uhuru commissioning Kindaruma-Mwingi-Garissa transmission line"]
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The firm has however indicated that the audit report has been forwarded to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for appropriate action.
