Kenya Power CEO Ken Tarus yesterday told a National Assembly committee the Directorate of Criminal Investigations is pursuing staff involved in procurement malpractices.
Speaking when he appeared before the Energy committee at Parliament Buildings yesterday, Tarus said those who will be found culpable will be prosecuted, adding 18 staff have been sacked.
“I want to assure this committee DCI officials are with us investigating the matter with a view to charging those involved.
“We have already subjected those who were involved to our internal disciplinary process and those found have been dismissed,” Tarus told the committee chaired by Nakuru Town East MP David Gikaria.
An internal audit report initiated by the management revealed how the dismissed staff colluded with unregistered companies, or front proxies, to win tenders at Kenya’s main electricity supplier.
The report on a tender for the supply of Labour and Transport for the 2016-17 financial year also exposed an intricate web of collusion between employees and supplier companies — some of which are owned or associated with the staff.
Tarus said the report unearthed 349 pre-qualified companies, despite having no record of legal status, being registered after the pre-qualification or presenting fake documentation.
“We have blacklisted the companies that were involved,” Tarus told the committee.
He informed the committee Kenya Power customers can now but tokens conveniently and very fast after the system underwent improvement.
“At the moment we have contracts with 15 vendors supporting the prepaid system, in addition to our paybill numbers 888880 and 888888 for prepaid and postpaid services respectively,” he said
Tarus said the power distributor is considering yerminating its contracts with the companies.
“Kenya Power recently undertook an upgrade of the IT platform that supports the mobile money payment channel to fast track token generation and receipt of payment for postpaid bills,” he said
