Former Kenya Power CEO Ben Chumo has defended his suitability to serve as the chairman of Salaries and Remuneration Commission saying he is a man of integrity.
Chumo told the Finance and Trade Committee that the graft charges he is facing over the loss of Sh4.5 billion in the procurement of faulty transformers occurred after he had left the company.
"There was no single case that arose during my stay at KPLC and I look back with a lot of pride to that particular service," Chumo said.
He spoke when he faced the vetting committee on Monday. The committee is chaired by Kipkelion East MP Joseph Limo.
Chumo served at the Kenya Power and Lighting Company for 32 years rising through the ranks from the human resource manager, chief human resource manager to chief executive officer.
He told the committee that over the period, his networth has grown to Sh212 million through investments and dairy farming.
"I never had any incident that undermined my integrity and public trust. Over the 32 years, I made investments across the country...I have some assets in Nairobi, I collect rent," Chumo said.
He told the committee that it would amount to sub judice to comment on the KPLC scandal but nevertheless offered to explain the sequence of events leading to the current scandal.
Chumo said that the charges he is facing relate to the procurement of transformers in the 2011/12 financial year which happened when he was not the CEO.
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He said he was not party to the deal since he rose to the helm as the CEO in 2013.
"I was not even a member of the procurement committee at the time, because I was in Human resource. However, I have been accused of procuring those transformers but I wasn’t there," Chumo said.
The ex-CEO and 18 other senior managers at KPLC, including the current MD Ken Tarus, are also facing charges relating to the non-procedural cancellation of the same tender.
He told the committee that he accepts liability for not following the right channel to cancel the tender "but not necessarily guilty".
He said after the tender was awarded in 2012/13, the supplier delayed to deliver the consignment until 2015.
Chumo said they then discovered that the transformers were faulty and decided to cancel the tender.
"We made a decision to stop the utilisation of those transformers, stop using what we had in store, stop further supply to [and] stop further supply to the company," Chumo said.
He, however, said that the decision was arrived at after professionals in the procurement department did due diligence including the involvement of the legal team.
"There are minutes to that effect chairman that demonstrates that that decision was consistent with the normal procedure."
Chumo said the supplier went to court in 2015 and it was letter agreed that the matter be settled out of court when he had already left on January 4, 2017.
"Payments were then made after I had left the company. Not that I’m casting any doubt on the genuineness of the payments," Chumo said.
The nominee said he considers himself innocent until proven guilty. Chumo and other co-accused
are out on Sh1 million cash bail.
He was nominated by President Uhuru Kenyatta to replace Sarah Serem at SRC. Serem’s tenure ended in December 2017.
Nominees, for the position of chairperson and commissioners respectively, must be vetted and approved within 14 and 21 days.
Earlier, some MPs had threatened to boycott vetting Chumo because of the corruption charges he faces.
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