A witness in a fraud case involving former Kenya Power senior managers was at pains Tuesday to explain how he conducted an analysis on the tender, which the utility company is alleged to have lost hundreds of millions of shillings, without all the documents.
While being cross-examined by lawyers Migos Ogamba and Kiraithe Wandugi, Mr Linus Murithi admitted that he was not given all the documents in relation to the tender for the supply of the transformers. And with all the documents, he would arrived at a different conclusion, he said.
The witness also admitted that he only had a letter, which had been sent to the Director-General of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) asking for analysis but which had no terms of reference.
After analysis, Mr Murithi, who is a senior capacity building officer at PPRA said they faulted the company for failing to advertise the tender in a newspaper as required. But Mr Ogamba produced a newspaper advert of 2011 inviting bidders.
Mr Murithi said that his team requested for all crucial documents from DCI to enable them conduct the analysis but they were not forthcoming. “We had to rely on the documents which were supplied to us by the DCI,” he said.
The witness further admitted that although there were seven companies that participated in the tender, the DCI tasked them to concentrate of Muwa Trading Company, because the directorate reportedly wanted to find out whether the tender was terminated in accordance to the law.
Fourteen people and one firm have been charged over the procurement of the faulty transformers, among them former senior managers Dr Ben Chumo and Dr Ken Tarus. Others are Mr Peter Mungai, Mr Joshua Mutua, Mr Abubakar Swaleh, Mr Samuel Ndirangu, Mr Stanley Mutwiri, Mr Benson Muriithi, Mr Peter Mwicigi and Mr John Ombui, the head of supply chain. They have denied the charges.
The charges stated that they conspired to commit an economic crime on diverse dates between August 3, 2013 and June 12, 2018 when they procured transformers worth about Sh408,533,221 from Muwa Trading company. The hearing continues.
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