Judiciary losing millions in pre-financed contracts

Ms Anne Amadi, Chief Registrar of the Judiciary. PHOTO | FILE 

By EDWIN MUTAI, emutai@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Sh15 million had been paid to a contractor hired during the tenure of former registrar Gladys Shollei over and above the amount of work done.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Tuesday found out that the Judiciary continues to lose millions of shillings in pre-financed contracts despite the changes at the office of the Chief Registrar.

Ms Anne Amadi, the Judiciary chief registrar said Sh15 million had been paid to a contractor hired during the tenure of her predecessor over and above the amount of work done.

“This is the same dilemma that we continue to face. When we dispatched our own inspection team to Kikuyu law courts to ascertain whether the works for the Sh29 million Wide Local Area Network had been completed, we realised what we paid was more than what was delivered,” she told MPs while appearing before the House team to respond to audit queries for the financial year 2013/14.

The committee also learnt that contracts for the construction of eight prefabricated court houses had been pre-financed yet contractors had not completed the work but are demanding for more money.

The former Judiciary registrar Gladys Shollei has since been charged in court. The committee yesterday heard that one firm was given five contractors while another three contracts to put up prefabricated court rooms in Kericho, Bomet, Wanguru, Othaya and Embu.

The judiciary paid in excess of Sh400 million for the construction of the court premises.

The works in the said towns have stalled following investigations into the tendering processes that have seen the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission take former registrar and other officials to court.

“The issue of prefabricated court houses has been discussed here before. It was occasioned by the fact that judiciary had not court premises,” she said.

Ms Amadi revealed that she was the registrar when Sh15 million more was paid to a company that connected the Kikuyu Law Courts to the Wide Local Area Network (LAN).

“I was there when this happened. The ICT director who was in charge of the first committee that recommended payment of Sh29 million to the contractor has since been charged in court,” she said.

Ms Amadi told the committee chaired by Jackson Rop (Kipkelion) the second inspection team that was constituted to ascertain whether the project had been completed realized that the firm had been overpaid.

“The committee looked at the contract and the work done and realized the company had been over paid by Sh15 million. We have engaged the contractor to complete the works failing which we will institute civil proceedings in court to recover the money,” she told MPs.

Mr Rop, members Nicholas Gumbo, Sakwa Bunyasi and Gonzi Rai expressed concern over the numerous contracts the judiciary entered into and paid contractors in advance.

Mr Gumbo, the substantive PIC chairman said the judiciary risk losing millions of money since it had paid contractors money in advance.

“Payments have been made over and above the work so far done. The contractors are still demanding more money to complete the stalled projects. Was this not away of stealing money from the Judiciary? How do you force someone who has been overpaid to complete the project,” Gumbo asked.