More is resurfacing in the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC) scandal with more rot emerging that has been engineered by chairman John Ngumi and PS Andrew Kamau.
In June, Ngumi and his accomplices engineered a scandal where Kenya Power paid SIEMENS France Ksh944 million to repair the vandalized underground cable which the same contractor had erected for Ksh1.1 billion.
How repairs could take 85 per cent of the initial cost is yet to be explained today, but this desk learns that Ngumi and accomplices wanted to account for deficits which were set to be unearthed by the government auditor.
In May, through Afriscan (Kenya Limited), PS Kamau, Ngumi and Construction MD Josiah Njoroge colluded to loot from KPC in the Turkana line.
Through the firm, the three demanded Ksh2.7 billion compensation for the planned acquisition of a land for purposes of building the line.
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This caused a further delay in the construction of the line which would have been connected to the national grid, raising the cost of electricity.
In the construction of fibre optic cable, the best company with a bid of Ksh600 million was disqualified and intimidated by Ngumi and his team.
In the saga, Ngumi secured Ksh20 million from the winning bidder, who would carry out the project at an inflated fee of Ksh800 million. PS Andrew Kamau alongside another high ranking government official were paid Ksh100 million.
The scandal involved Mr Abdu Duale, son to National Assembly majority leader Aden Duale.
The evaluation team was paid Ksh10 million to fix the tender process. The Evaluation committee chair Lamik Rotich made contacts with Express Automation –Piresh/Bill and Mr Abdul who was the JV partner.
General manager Peter Jabon Mbugua who was later found with vague academic papers and dismissed got Ksh3 million.
Mbugua was recruited on the strength of chairman John Ngumi recommendation while Ps Andrew Kamau was Peter Mbugua’s referee in the CV. Later, Ngumi would write to the Directorate of Criminal Investigation instructing them to go slow on Mbugua.
In another project for value automation, the tender was split and awarded to Italian company Rigel systems Ltd through its local agents Hawkeye Ltd based at
Mayfair center.
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The project cos Ksh1.2 billion. Ksh60 million was paid to the board led by Ngumi to make things smooth.
In a tank project for KPC which cost Ksh4.9 billion, Ngumi was paid Ksh5 million by the Turkish Sub contractors who also tape recorded Simon Sang soliciting the managing director and general manager’s procurement share.
The Office of the Auditor General staff working on the 2015/2016, 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 KPC audit were intimidated to drop the audit items raised. Also, a sum of Ksh60 million was dispatched to the team of auditors.
KPC have lost millions of shillings almost Ksh800 million from fictitious ICT projects being
undertaken annually with a view of siphoning money. Some of the project never reach the
commissioning stage despite full payment, for instance, the budgeting project where Ksh17 million was paid for air.
KPC system has been compromised by many cosmetic projects undertaken by ICT to cover up for the many scandals by Ngumi and his team.
A cartel runs the KPC Ullage space allocation with constant communication between the KPC contacts and the ministry high profile contacts. The cartel was managed from choice of staff and provision of the relevant system training that manages Ullage allocation.
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