REA board chairman Simon Gicharu. FILE PHOTO | NMG
What you need to know:
The agency’s board on Wednesday evening asked the CEO and other top officials to step aside for the investigations to begin.
Previous auditor-general reports have raised questions on governance and corruption at REA.
Taxpayers have spent more than Sh30 billion to connect 22,587 primary schools to electricity ahead of introducing tablets in the institutions.
The chief executive officer of the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) and five senior managers have been suspended to pave way for an audit into how billions of shillings were spent in a primary schools electrification programme.
The agency’s board on Wednesday evening asked chief executive Ng’ang’a Munyu, Rose Mkalama (company secretary), Joan Riitho (audit manager) and procurement manager Wilfred Oduor to step aside for the investigations to begin.
Elizabeth Onoka, the human resources manager, has also been suspended to allow an audit into the authority’s rural staffing.
“To ensure the audits are undertaken independently and for purposes of public confidence in the audit, the management is requested to step aside to facilitate the audit,” said a memo signed by REA chairman Simon Gicharu.
Mr Gicharu, who is also founder of Mount Kenya University, said the board had resolved to conduct an extensive and in-depth audit of the human resources and connection of primary schools, adding that Energy secretary Charles Keter had ordered the audit.
Previous auditor-general reports have raised questions on governance and corruption at REA pointing to possible inflation of transport, material and other expenses.
Substandard goods
The authority was also accused of acquiring substandard goods such as cables and transformers.
Taxpayers have spent more than Sh30 billion to connect 22,587 primary schools to electricity ahead of introducing tablets in the institutions.
The government ordered the Energy ministry to ensure that all schools are connected to electric power before the rollout of a programme that seeks to supply laptops to all Class One pupils.
The Treasury has allocated the ICT ministry Sh13.4 billion for deployment of the laptops in schools, development of digital content, building capacity of teachers and establishment of computer laboratories for primary schools in the financial year starting July.
The Jubilee administration promised to deliver one laptop per Class One pupil in the run up to the 2013 General Election.
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