Top executives of six key parastatals have been summoned by MPs to answer queries about the mismanagement of public resources in their institutions detailed in audit reports of Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu.
The Kenya Power, Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) top the list of the parastatals whose chief executives have been summoned to appear before the National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee on Commercial Affairs and Energy to respond to audit queries.
Others lined up for grilling are chief executives of the Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA), Information and Communication Technology Authority (ICTA) and the National Irrigation Authority (NIA).
“An analysis of the Auditor-General’s reports for the State corporations under the committee’s purview indicated that the materiality audit queries varied across the state corporations with a few having very significant issues,” said Pokot South MP David Pkosing, who chairs the committee.
Kenya Power acting managing director Geoffrey Muli is expected to appear before the MPson Tuesday to answer queries over its loss-making streak and high-capacity charge on Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
Other issues facing the power distributor include wide disparities in the comparative cost of power purchase between Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC (KenGen) and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) as well as the implementation of the last mile electricity project.
The parastatal has had qualified audit opinions in each of the last four financial years from 2017/18 to 2020/21. The committee is expected to put Mr Muli on task to explain what the company is doing to reverse the high-capacity charge on Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
“They account for 52 per cent of the total cost of sales and are fixed so have adversely affected the company’s performance during the year,” the committee said in a brief seen by the Business Daily.
The committee will grill Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) managing director Philip Mainga over the company’s current liabilities which exceeded its current assets by Sh9.29 billion as of the end of June 2020.
