The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has turned its eyes on Nairobi City County Government's multi-billion shillings tenders.
Reports from the Daily Nation on Saturday, December 21, indicated that red flags were discovered in payouts for various services, including to an insurance firm, Noveta Limited which replaced JamboPay, and in the refurbishment of Pumwani Maternity Hospital, a project undertaken by Governor Mike Sonko in 2018.
The DCI is also reported to have raised concerns about payment of casual workers for their day to day activities in the county.
In a letter dated December 17, 2019, the DCI indicated that it suspected that the embattled Nairobi governor may have fraudulently pushed for the said payments between 2017 and 2019.
The DCI is reported to have written to County Secretary Simon Ole Morintat, demanding that the Sonko's administration furnishes it with details of payments made to casual workers who participated in the county projects.
The investigative body also demanded the tender invitations, preparations and submissions, opening and evaluation, and tender committee minutes.
Also demanded to present themselves to the DCI are officials who were tasked with payments and the award of the said tenders.
"In addition to the provisions of the above, we request you to assign officers who have the knowledge of the projects to assist with information on their roles," the letter read.
Noveta Limited, which is in the middle of Sonko's woes, was reported to have come into play in 2018 after the Nairobi County Government parted ways with JamboPay, which had been helping revenue collection in the city.
The county government launched an unstructured supplementary service data, with Noveta powering the payments through its platform before the project ran into headwinds in unclear circumstances.
