Prison facilities hit by shortages amid tender rows

Former Nakuru Woman Mp Mary Mbugua accompanied by other religious leaders hold prayers at Nyahururu GK Prison.Prisons are facing financial crises. [File, Standard]

A crisis is growing in major prison facilities over a row between the department of prisons and suppliers of major goods, which include food, medicine and fuel.

Major facilities have reported a shortage of the goods, which has grounded operations including feeding of prisoners and transporting of prisoners and warders to various places.

“Prisoners fall sick on a daily basis and need medicine and transport. We don’t have food and medicine for them and even allowances for warders,” said one official at Industrial Area Remand Prisons.

This came after Principal Secretary Zienab Wanjiru Hussein suspended payment of multi-billion shillings pending bills.

On one hand, senior prisons officials accuse the PS of stalling operations in the department while on the other her office says the pending bills which amount to Sh6.2 billion have to be verified before being paid.

Besides the pending bills, the PS has stopped award of new tenders.

The department has now re-advertised the tender, which effectively cancels the initial awards. This means money that had been allocated for the tenders may be recalled to the treasury, further affecting services.

The department has in the meantime written to various government agencies asking for scrutiny of the won tenders.

They include the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) and the Attorney General, auditors, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

The winning bidders, however say they are yet to be officially informed of the new developments and claims of the cancelations which will enable them to think of the next course of action.

Ms Hussein confirmed in an earlier interview her office suspended the tenders over “anomalies” that were detected involving the Sh6.2 billion pending bills.

And to address the supplies, the ministry has contracted the Supplies Branch in the ministry of transport, housing and infrastructure to start supplying the essential commodities to the department.

The affected suppliers met yesterday to deliberate on the matter following an advertisement placed in the local media and threatened to move to court.

“We believe they want to give these tenders to some preferred candidates at our expense. We had obtained some of the needed goods at a cost and it will be a loss to us. We will meet in court,” said three suppliers who asked not to be named.

Ms Zainab has at the same time made changes in the department affecting at least seven sectional heads.

Officers in prisons are also unhappy that a team has been established to amend the Prisons Act.

“None of those in the team to amend the Act is an officer from the prisons which makes it complicated. We don’t know why,” said an officer aware of the development in the department.

A team is also in place and tasked to recover titles of 129 parcels of land owned by Prisons. Currently, the department has only has seven titles to its name for all the land they own in the country.

Commissioner General of Prisons Isaiah Osugo refused to comment on the issues saying he was on a trip to Coast.