Auditor-General faults Hassan, Oswago over 2013 election kits

Auditor-General Edward Ouko has found Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Isaack Hassan, suspended CEO James Oswago and former Finance minister Njeru Githae culpable in the procurement of biometric voter registration kits in a government-to-government arrangement.

In a special audit on the procurement of the Electronic Voter Devices for the 2013 General Election by the IEBC, Mr Ouko accused Mr Oswago for mismanaging the BVR tender, leading to costlier government-to-government procurement.

Mr Oswago is currently under suspension after being charged in court over the procurement of the BVRs and Electronic Voter Identification Devices (Evids) that largely failed during voting.

READ: Five IEBC officials charged with altering tender papers

“If competitive bidding process was a success, 9,750 BVR kits costing approximately Sh4 billion could have been enough to register Kenyans for the General Election, but due to delays in procurement process 15,000 BVR kits costing approximately Sh6.2 billion were purchased,” said Mr Ouko in his report.

He also faulted Mr Oswago for appointments to the tender evaluation and due diligence committees.

The Auditor-General found the IEBC chairman culpable for allowing Mr Tim Colby to sit in a meeting discussing a government-to-government procurement option.

“This is what set grounds for single sourcing of government of Canada and Morpho of Canada, which resulted to government being supplied BVR kits at inflated prices,” Mr Ouko said.

Mr Githae is accused of delaying to send specifications and timelines to government of France in response to their request directed by the Cabinet committee on implementation of the Constitution.

“The Cabinet committee had directed that the information be forwarded by August 17 but it was not until August 21 after signing a deal with Canada that he acted.