Mistakes by IEBC cost Kenyans Sh4b, parliamentary committee told

Auditor General Edward Ouko says IEBC was responsible for procurement blunders captured in a special audit by his office. (Photo: Boniface Okendo/Standard)

The electoral commission committed deliberate mistakes when purchasing voting kits in 2013 that cost the taxpayer Sh4 billion, Auditor General Edward Ouko has said.

Ouko who added a new twist to the saga facing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) told a parliamentary committee that the commission was responsible for procurement blunders captured in a special audit by his office.

He told the National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs committee that the IEBC tender committee, chaired by its chairman Issack Hassan, violated procurement rules in the supply of Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits by allowing an interested party to sit in one of its meetings.

"This was a clear case of conflict of interest," Ouko said adding; "IEBC went ahead to procure the equipment from a party it had no contract with. The commission went further to pay for the equipment through a high interest loan."

"We had money to pay but went for the loan. We ended up with a supplier who sold the equipment at a higher cost," Ouko said.

He blamed Treasury mandarins for abdicating their role of advising the government against entering into a government to government contract for the supply of the equipment.

"We noted that the BVR kits were supplied to IEBC by SAFRAN Morpho of France while there was no contract between the two institutions," the report reads.

"The decision makers at the Treasury failed to advice the government properly...if we had planned well and gone with the initial contract, we would have saved money," it adds.

The auditor's comments were mainly drawn from the special report, sections of which committee chairman Samuel Chepkonga (Ainabkoi) asked him to confirm.

The current commission is under pressure to leave office on grounds it cannot be trusted to conduct a free and fair election in 2017.

The auditor's report formed the basis of another one by the House Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which recommended that specific disciplinary action be taken against nine IEBC commissioners.

Among those mentioned in the Auditor General's report is Mr Hassan, whom the auditor said should cease from inviting 'strangers' in commission meetings.

As the chair of the meeting that charted the way forward for government to government process, he allowed presence of Mr Tim Colby in the meeting, and this is what set grounds for single sourcing," Ouko told the MPs yesterday.