Nicolas Gumbo (centre), the chairperson of the National Assembly's
Public Accounts Committee, on November 3, 2016. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE |
NAIROBI
The controversy-ridden National Youth Service paid out Sh1.64
billion worth of contracts to 40 companies whose directors are unknown,
documents presented to a parliamentary committee have shown.
The
Sh1.64 billion included Sh820 million paid to six of the 20 companies
belonging to Ms Josephine Kabura whom separately received Sh1.6 billion
from the agency but that were listed in the document as having no
contact.
In all, the Public
Accounts Committee has been presented with a total of 224 transactions
worth over Sh4.8 billion done in the 2014/15 and 2015/16 financial years
that the team last week said will now be used to cast a wider net in
the probe.
The new document,
that was presented to the Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo-led committee has
cast new doubts on the integrity of the payments made to other firms
besides those belonging to Ms Kabura who has appeared before the team
early this month.
The
Devolution ministry’s document shows the money, the bank paid to, the
date and the company’s Integrated Financial Management System (Ifmis)
number.
NOT CLEAR
It is, however, not clear how the 40 companies were in the system without contacts or list of directors.
In
the 18-page document, Brand Associate Ltd received Sh157 million for
rebranding the agency, payments made between November 2014 and March
2015 and was marked as with “no contact” in the directory.
Of
this, the company received Sh26 million for consultancy services in
rebranding, Sh61 million as “mobilisation fees”, and a further Sh69
million for “rebranding NYS media”.
A
company with a similar name, Brand Associates Ltd, received Sh17.4
million on September 2015, six months after the former was paid Sh26
million for the same function of consultancy to rebrand the service.
Brand
Associate and Brand Associates were listed as having the same Ifmis and
bank account numbers. Brand Associates was listed as directed by a Mr
Justus Wairimu.
Last week, the
committee said it had expanded its investigations after revelations that
17 more banks handled the billions following the presentation of the
document. Previously, only 11 banks were listed as having touched the
agency’s loot.
“All we can say
for sure is that it is running into several billions and off our
fingertips, it is definitely more than the figures that you’ve heard in
this room,” said Mr Gumbo last week.
NO CONTACT
Ms
Kabura’s companies that were listed as having no contact are Reinforced
Concrete Technologies (Sh320.2 million), Roof and All Trading (Sh253.3
million), Benchmark Coaching (Sh7.9 million) and Tucking Stitch Emporium
(Sh79.3 million).
Others are Brain Craft Training (Sh144 million), and Learning Gate Trading (Sh15.9 million).
The
document reveals that the agency paid Ms Kabura’s firms- Reinforced
Concrete Technologies and Roof and All Trading- a total of Sh570 million
in different tranches within five weeks between February and March 2015
for supplying the same thing.
The two companies both have accounts at Family Bank.
Similarly,
the document has listed Brand Spark Supplies Ltd as having received
Sh18 million for the supply of a “GUF Away Model four cylinder
four-stroke car engine” while Netwool Mart Trading received a total of
Sh36.9 million for the supply of computers and “ICT hardware”.
No comments :
Post a Comment