A National Cereals and Produce Board depot: The parastatal is seeking to extend a court order barring a firm from auctioning its property over a breach of contract award.
The National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) risks losing its Sh10 billion assets through auctioneers should its attempt to extend a court stay order flop on Friday.
But the Treasury said it intended to deposit in court the Sh923 million awarded to Erad Suppliers and General Contractors for breach of contract for the supply of 40,000 tonnes of maize.
Treasury PS Joseph Kinyua said that NCPB assets “will be protected at all costs”.
Mr Kinyua, Special Programmes PS Andrew Mondoh, Housing PS Tirop Kosgey and the NCPB chairman Gideon Misoi, appeared before the parliamentary Committee on Agriculture chaired by Naivasha MP John Mututho to explain steps taken to protect the parastatal’s assets.
“If it is agreed by the House, we can cut the Ministry of Agriculture budget and deposit the said monies in court to allow the parties more time to battle in court,” Mr Kinyua said.
The officials held a meeting with the Attorney General Githu Muigai to explore other options should it fail to obtain new orders barring attachment of its assets pending an appeal at the Court of Appeal.
“There is very little chance of success in the Court of Appeal having lost in the arbitration, the court and the High Court. What we need to do now is to protect NCPB assets,” said Mr Mututho.
The High Court on Friday morning is expected to decide on whether the temporary order stopping Erad’s auctioneers from attaching or disposing of vehicles and other movables it carted away two weeks ago will be extended.
Erad, which is linked with trader Jacob Juma, won an arbitration against NCPB after it sued the board over breach of contract after the Ministry of Agriculture terminated a deal for the company to supply maize in 2006.
The firm sent auctioneers on April 5 to collect the Sh923 million from the board following the award through the arbitration whose decision was upheld by the High Court.
They had attached four vehicles and some property before the Ministry of Special Programmes, which stores its strategic grain reserves in the board’s facilities, got an order stopping the auctioneers.
