MPs order special audit of stalled Knec headquarters

Members of Parliament have ordered a special audit of works at the proposed Kenya National Examination Council headquarters.

Mitihani House is only 60 per cent complete since its foundation was laid in 1986. Knec staffers operate from five different sites because of the completion delay.

The Public Investments Committee wants the Auditor General to probe the project’s books over concerns it is getting costlier by the day.

Engineers' estimate of March 2017 showed that the project required about Sh1.8 billion to finish the remaining works. Its budget in 1986 was Sh248.9 million.

Knec attributed the delay and escalating costs to challenges relating to project management by the ministries of Land and Housing.

The management further decried the non-remittance of development grants by the Education ministry.

The PIC chaired by Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir concluded that “it appears the ministry was not desirous to complete the project.”

The committee warned that if something is not done about the situation, “the project would continue incurring additional costs.”

“The Auditor General should carry out a special audit detailing interests paid to contractors and variation of both scope of works and contract amounts,” the PIC ruled in its latest report covering up to financial year ending 2018.

“Slow progress in the implementation of the project is due to inadequate budgetary allocation. Meagre resources were allocated to this project,” the committee observed.

Mitihani House was initiated to house all Knec activities next to the Kenya Bureau of Standards' premises in South C, off Mombasa Road.

The Public Works ministry was the manager and was expected to oversee the construction of three interconnected blocks of office space.

Towers A, B and C were to comprise a common basement, ground floor and six upper floors on each tower.

There was also a planned printing plant for processing all the council’s examination papers as one component of the project.

The other component was external road and landscaping works; cabro paving, street lighting and landscaping of access road from the tarmac.

The initial contract was awarded to Mavji Construction Company Ltd as the main contractor at Sh258 million in February 1986.

“The project was decommissioned in December 2016 under instructions from the National Treasury,” Knec management once told PIC.

The second was awarded to Mistry Javda Parbat & Co Ltd at Sh249 million in March 1987 but the project stalled in July 1989 as a result of inadequate budgetary allocation.

Knec said the project was mutually wound up and the site handed over to the then Ministry of Works, Housing and Physical Planning in December 1998.

The project was then placed under the stock of stalled projects in 2003 and was to be implemented in five phases.

The first phase was the construction of the printing press block next to the New Mitihani House which was completed by Capital Construction Company Ltd at Sh113 million.

It was handed over in May 2006 while security and civil works on the printing press were completed in February 2007.

The contract for works on the basement and ground floor was terminated after Jaswant M/S Singh and Brothers Ltd failed to agree with another contractor on sharing construction site.

Ongata Works was contracted to work on the first to sixth floors of the office block at Sh866 million but the contract was extended six times pushing the cost to Sh1.085 billion.

The contractor was also tasked with internal partitions, services, finishes, road works and landscaping at Sh1.5 billion.

The contract for the supply and installation of four lifts was awarded to M/S Schindler Ltd but the subcontract was terminated in 2013 for non-performance.

The council then awarded the contract to M/S Elevonic Lifts in August 2014 for Sh27 million; the works were 60 per cent complete.

Knec wants a meeting of all the project stakeholders to find a way in which the issues could be resolved.

(edited by o. owino)