IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati yesterday told MPs that former CEO Ezra Chiloba single-handely procured a number of contracts and fought to keep him in darkness on major procurement deals in the run-up to last year’s General Election.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee probing suspicious spending at the commission before and after last year’s polls, Chebukati told MPs that he was kept in the dark over the procurement processes in the commission and his attempts to streamline the same triggered joint resignation of three commissioners.
The IEBC team led by Chebukati and acting CEO Hussein Marjan heaped blame on former CEO claiming he single-handedly procured a number of contracts through direct procurement without involving the commission.
Chebukati also admitted that taxpayers’ money could have been lost in the manner the tenders were awarded by the secretariat which it emerged opted for direct procurement of crucial services which would have been contracted at a lower cost had the same been subjected to competitive bidding.
The IEBC boss said that of the more than the 100 procurements carried out by the commission from June 2016 to last year’s election, the commissioners were only briefed on logistics tenders.
Chebukati told the oversight committee that the Secretariat then headed by sacked CEO Ezra Chiloba kept the commissioners in the dark.
“We were met with resistance on procurement issues and the CEO is on record saying the commission should not get involved in the procurement process. We were concerned that is why we commissioned an internal audit,” Chebukati told MPs.
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