The prisons departments has said it will not pay Ksh6.2 billion it owes to suppliers since 2009, due to irregularities.
In a statement, the Correctional Services Department said that it took 40 auditors 60 days to scrutinize and review all the outstanding claims, with the claims worth Ksh6.2 billion found irregular.
“In a bid to commence the settlement of these outstanding claims, the Department wrote to the National Treasury on the 1st of November 2018, requesting for a team of auditors to verify the claims. The National Treasury commissioned a team of 40 auditors who took 60 days to scrutinize and review all the outstanding claims,” said Correctional Services PS Zainab Hussein in the statement.
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“The findings of the National Treasury auditors was that all outstanding claims were irregular and some were illegal and therefore the team could not recommend any for payment,” added the statement.
The department again, according to the statement, formed another Multiagency task force comprising of the EACC, DCI, State Law Office, the National Treasury and Internal auditors to go through all the claims once again and advice if any of those claims could be settled.
“The verdict of the Multi-Agency task force was that none could be settled,” says the department.
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In the Financial Year 2018/2019 the State Department paid Ksh3.8 billion for food and rations, Ksh418 million for development and Ksh142 million from the prison enterprise fund.
In the current Financial Year 2019/2020 the State Department has so far paid Ksh2.1 billion for food and ration, Ksh64 million for pending bills and Ksh120 million from the Prison enterprise fund.
Among the tenders that have been under scrutiny include a tender for the supply of bullet proof vests and plastic helmets that was awarded to Firetruss Systems for Ksh2.2 billion. A Ksh595.7 tender awarded to Pakistan Ordinance to supply standard G3 firearms and another Ksh478.5 million tender for supply of submachine guns were also under scrutiny.
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Also under investigation was Mildat ZO, which won a tender to supply rifles amounting to Ksh343 million and Milways Enterprises which was awarded Ksh200 million to supply slings for the rifles.
The Commission in March 2019 stopped payments worth Ksh3.6 billion (80 per cent) which was to be paid before the delivery of the security items as there was no tender performance security or bank guarantee.
In the 2017/18 financial year, the department was accused of making questionable payments worth Ksh1.15 billion.
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