By EDWIN MUTAI
In Summary
Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) Henry Rotich has said
Tourism ministry tricked Parliament into approving additional Sh500
million for construction of Ronald Ngala Utalii College after he
declined to authorise the allocation in the budget.
He told the Public Investment Committee (PIC) that the
Cabinet did not approve a memo scaling down the project to Sh4.9 billion
but the National Assembly, through the Finance, Planning and Trade
Committee altered the supplementary budget for 2013/14 to provide Sh500
million for the project.
“We wanted the Cabinet to endorse the changes from
Sh8.9 billion to Sh4.9 billion. But that memo has not been approved . We
did what we were supposed to do,” Mr Rotich told MPs yesterday.
The minister said he turned down a request by the
Ministry of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism for additional
Sh1.3 billion for payment of pending bills and drew the attention of the
minister to the breach of procurement law and the Public Finance
Management Act, 2012 in the award of the multibillion-shilling tender
without an approved budget.
Scaled up
“I wrote to my counterpart drawing attention to the
fact that the project had been scaled up from Sh1.9 billion that the
Cabinet approved in 2007 to Sh8.9 billion. The scaling up had no Cabinet
backing and the project was awarded to the contractor without a
budget,” he told the PIC chaired by Eldas MP Adan Keynan.
The committee is investigating how the project’s
cost rose to Sh8.9 billion and later reduced to Sh4.9 billion without
Cabinet approval.
Treasury Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge the said
the House Finance Committee saw the need to allocate the funds
following a visit to the Kilifi construction site organised by the
Tourism ministry.
PIC members Nominated MP Oburu Oginga and Baringo
Central MP Sammy Mwaita, who also sit on the Finance Committee were
shocked that ministry officials tricked lawmakers into allocating the
money.
“I am member of Finance Committee and the information was not availed to us that there was no Cabinet approva,” Mr Oginga said.
emutai@ke.nationmedia.com
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