Economy

UK court reveals anomalies in IIEC poll material orders

oswago

Former IEBC chief executive James Oswago. PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI

The ability of the elections agency to conduct credible polls has come under the spotlight in an ongoing case in a London court where evidence has been adduced showing that current and former officials worked actively against the organisation’s objectives.

UK investigators have tabled evidence showing that management and commissioners of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) were keen on ordering more election materials without regard to the actual requirement of national or locals polls.

The move to procure more-than-adequate ballot papers and voter registration forms was meant to enlarge bribes from Smith & Ouzman (S&O), a UK firm that hogged the printing tenders with the officials’ collusion.

The kickbacks would rise with the volume of election materials ordered, meaning that the procurement process was decoupled from the actual electoral needs as the conspirators gunned for self-enrichment.

This arrangement exposed taxpayers to massive losses and raises questions over what the IIEC did with the excess materials ordered.

S&O won more than seven contracts between 2009 and 2010 alone, with prices inflated by up to 37.5 per cent to accommodate the payments of bribes variously codenamed ‘chicken’.

READ: UK court exposes bribery at Kenya’s poll agency

These amounted to £380,859 (Sh53.7 million) for all the contracts, part of which went to pay S&O’s local agent Trevy James Oyombra.

For the 2009 Shinyalu and Bomachoge by-elections, for instance, IIEC had ordered 57,000 and 51,000 ballot papers with the knowledge that it would need a substantially smaller number of the election materials.

Variation in the volumes of materials the IIEC ordered from S&O went in tandem with inflation of prices, ultimately exerting high cost on taxpayers. The changes were freely discussed on mail exchanges between S&O agents and the IIEC officials.

Value

Documents before the London court, for instance, show that the value of the 57,000 ballot papers the IIEC had ordered for the South Mugirango and Matuga by-elections rose for the third time following a meeting between S&Os local representative Oyombra and IIEC chief executive James Oswago.

This time the price for the 57,000 ballot papers for South Mugirango increased from £8,179.50 to £9,034.50 (following on top of the previous price jump from £5,130 (Sh718,200) to £8,179.50 (Sh1,145,060) between May 10 and May 17; the price for the 51,000 ballot papers for Matuga increased from £7,318.50 (Sh1,024,520) to £8,083.50 (Sh1,131,620); the price for 230,800 ballot papers for the civic by-election increased from £36,581.80 (Sh5,121,340)to £51,583.80 (Sh7,221,620).

EARLIER: How local agent assisted graft syndicate to deliver cash

Court documents show that in the end, S&O delivered less materials for each order.

Between May and July 2010, S&O shipped 48,150 ballot papers for South Mugirango (reduced from the initial figure of 57,000); 48,550 ballot papers for Matuga (reduced from the initial figure of 51,000); and 187,400 ballot papers for civic by-elections (reduced from the initial figure of 230,800).

The total value of the orders was £64,870.31 (Sh9,081,800) representing a price inflation margin of 28 per cent to enable the payment of bribes to IIEC officials.

The Treasury paid the amount on September 9, 2009. In the run up to the 2010 Constitution referendum, the IIEC once again ordered more materials (18 million ballot papers and other materials at a price of Sh62 million) than it needed to ramp up ‘commissions’ for corrupt officials.

Court papers show that CEO James Oswago this time more than tripled the number of optical mark reader (OMR), correction and nomination forms that the agency needed for the plebicite.