• Top EACC bosses, including chairman Eliud Wabukala and CEO Twalib Mbarak, summoned.
• Embattled former NLC chairman Muhammad Swazuri chaired committee that approved the acquisition of the building.
A parliamentary watchdog committee is investigating the controversial acquisition of the Integrity Center Building by the EACC for Sh1.5 billion.
Parliament's Public Accounts Committee has summoned Ethics and Anti-Corruption Committee bosses, including chairman Eliud Wabukala and CEO Twalib Mbarak, to explain the deal.
They are expected to appear before the Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi-led committee on Monday.
The probe comes only days after Auditor General Edward Ouko cast doubt on the valuation process of the building.
Wandayi, in a statement to newsrooms on Sunday, said his panel is inquiring into the matter because of "intense public interest".
“PAC is going to exercise its constitutional mandate and examine the matter with the usual diligence and objectivity with a view to bringing it to a logical conclusion,” Wandayi said.
EACC, through the National Land Commission, compulsorily acquired the building from Tegus Limited for Sh1,543,382,916 in April last year.
As at April 30 last year, the commission had paid Sh1,518, 000, 000 for the building. The balance of Sh25,383,916 is yet to be cleared.
In his 2017-18 report on the EACC, Ouko doubted the value of the building given that valuation was done by the NLC and not the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning as required to ensure the taxpayers get the value for money.
The ministry’s Department of Land Valuation, Ouko says, is mandated to provide valuation services for leasing, rent or purchase of properties by both the national and county departments and other institutions.
“Although the NLC in their letter dated June 27, 2017, claims to have requested valuation services from the Ministry of Lands, valuation of the property was done by the NLC,” Ouko said.
“No evidence was availed for audit review to clarify whether the Ministry of Lands played a role in the valuation of the property despite the fact that the department of land valuation in the ministry is mandated to provide valuation services."
Embattled former NLC chairman Muhammad Swazuri chaired the committee that approved the acquisition of the building.
He and 23 others were arrested for irregular compensation for Sh100 million land in Mombasa.
The building is the EACC’s nerve centre.
The deal was approved by the National Assembly's Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, the National Treasury and the Attorney General. This was after the commission complained that it was spending huge sums in rent.
Plans to buy it started in 1999, but EACC's acquisition's plans were published in a Gazette notice on December 5, 2017. An inquiry notice No. 1519 was published on February 16 last year.
Tegus Limited bought the Integrity Centre from Revack Limited for Sh400 million in 2013.
Revack Limited acquired it from the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation which had bought it from the collapsed Trust Bank.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)