The Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) has been exposed for paying Sh21.4 million rent to Prism Towers, when the three floors it leased from the developer stayed idle for six months.
CRA paid full year rent for three floors of Prism Towers covering July 2023 to June 2024, but new details show that Sh21.4 million of the amount went to waste, since the commission took until mid-December 2023 to award the contract for office partitioning.
In a new report, Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu said that over the year to June 2024, 21.6 percent of CRA's total spending on rent was on the three floors at Prism Towers.
CRA entered into a lease agreement with Prism Towers on July 1, 2023 and paid for the full year’s rent, the audit shows. The Sh21.4 million was part of the Sh99.2 million the commission spent on rent for the full year.
The commission, however, entered into a contract with a company to undertake office partitioning and refurbishments, though it was paying rent for the six months the space was idle.
“Review of procurement process revealed that the commission on 15 December, 2023, entered into a contract for proposed partitioning works on 28th, 29th and 30th floors of Prism Towers. The contract was awarded to a local company for office partitioning works at a contract sum of Sh117,011 ,951,” Ms Gathungu says.
It remains unclear if the commission paid the entire amount of Sh117 million since the contractor had only done works covering 83 percent of the contract and which was valued at Sh97.7 million before the CRA moved in.
The auditor said the CRA spent Sh97.9 million on furniture, fittings and refurbishment of the new offices during the year to June 2024, covering the three floors.
Its staff, however, entered the offices after April 2025 since an earlier plan to complete the works by the end of March was later pushed forward by a month.
The audit faults the commission for failing to adhere to the Public Finance Management law to eliminate wastage of public funds.
Ms Gathungu exposes the lack of value for the Sh21.4 million, and a breach of law by the commission due to discrepancies between the value of contract signed and the works performed.
“Review of the information provided indicate that although the contractor had been issued with a certificate of practical completion, the contractor had completed works valued at Sh97,747,781 or 83 percent of the contract sum,” the audit stated.
CRA management did not respond to Business Daily questions regarding the rationale for paying full-year rent when it only started partitioning the offices six months later and the amount paid to the contractor.
