The national pensions fund broke the law
by authorising a controversial housing project at a city estate, a
parliamentary committee has said.
The Public
Investments Committee said yesterday the NSSF board should not have
allowed the award of the contract to put up infrastructure in Tassia
estate unless the plot owners paid all the required funds.
The
MPs said allowing the award of the contract without assurances it would
be funded was contrary to the Public Procurement and Disposal Act.
Both
the NSSF management and Labour Cabinet Secretary Kambi Kazungu have
argued that the 5,500 plot owners at Tassia II, and not the fund, were
to pay for the Sh5 billion infrastructure project.
But
PIC chairman Adan Keynan and his deputy, Mr Kimani Ichung’wa, argued
the board should have ensured plot owners paid first so that NSSF did
not lose any money if they defaulted on payment.
“We
have been told it’s the 5,500 plot owners who will cater for the entire
Sh5 billion that will be spent on this project. My concern is that the
fund has already awarded this job to a contractor without having first
agreed with the plot owners as to how this will be raised,” said Mr
Ichung’wa.
The Kikuyu MP also noted that in her
approval via email, Federation of Kenya Employers representative
Jacqueline Mugo had stated that her support for the project was on
condition that “it would not pose an additional cost to the fund.”
Mr
Keynan argued that without the cash in the bank from the plot owners,
NSSF stood to lose money in case they defaulted on payment.
“Which
one would have come first, collection from the plot owners or
tendering? The right procedure would have been that you collect the
money and once you have the money, you then tender. It’s common sense,”
said Mr Keynan.
PIC has questioned the speed with
which the project was being implemented given the fund is yet to receive
Sh7oo million of the Sh2.5 billion it had sold the land.
Cornelly
Serem (Aldai, URP) was also concerned that two of the recent largest
NSSF projects- the completion of Hazina Towers to 36 stories and the
Tassia project- went to China Jiangxi International Kenya Ltd
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