Senators grill Kidero over tender award

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero when he appeared before Senate Public Accounts Committee at Parliament on Wednesday 29/06/16 over audit queries. He was pressed to explain why the county government awarded a tender to collect revenue to JamboPay even when it retains close to half the money. (PHOTO: BONIFACE OKENDO/ STANDARD)

Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero was yesterday pressed to explain why the county government awarded a tender to collect revenue to a firm even when it retains close to half the money.

According to an agreement between the county government and JamboPay, which is mandated to manage electronic payments, the company would retain 4.5 per cent of all collected revenue.

Senators were angered by the fact that JamboPay was awarded the contract despite the fact that two other companies quoted lower fees.

Virtual Mobile and Craftsilcon would have taken 2.5 per cent of the transactions as their fees.

However, efforts by members of the Public Accounts and Investment Committee to dig deep into the matter were thwarted as Mr Kidero maintained that they should await findings of a special audit he had requested into the tendering and awarding of the contract.

Senators demanded to know why the governor had failed to provide tender documents to the Auditor General when the audit was being conducted, with the documents suddenly appearing when the team was called before the Senate.

"Why were these documents not available when the auditor wanted them? Where have they suddenly come from?" said Nominated Senator Martha Wangari.

Kidero defended the system, arguing that it had helped increase revenue collection from Sh6 billion to Sh13 billion annually.

"Procurement documents during the audit period were not available since they had been forwarded to the Public Procurement Oversight Authority," said Kidero.

Yesterday, Kidero defied the directive by Council of Governors chairman Peter Munya that county chiefs should not appear before Senate committees. Instead, Kidero showed up to defend his administration against a series of audit queries by Auditor General Edward Ouko.

Mr Munya had warned governors against appearing before committees after Kidero and Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko caused a scene before the senators two weeks ago. 

Despite Munya's directive, Kidero appeared before the committee led by Kisumu Senator Anyang Nyong'o where he was taken to task over alleged tendering irregularities.