SCANDAL: How Kidero spent Sh28.8 million to repair lifts
Nairobi governor Evans Kidero is at the centre of a new storm over alleged misuse of funds on overpriced repair works at the City Hall.
The County Assembly Public Accounts Committee has questioned governor Kidero’s procurement officer over the repair of three lifts at a cost of sh28.8 million at the City Hall Annex building.
The probe comes after the Auditor General queried the manner the tender was single sourced and why City Hall used the amount on repair and not to purchase new lifts altogether.
The Auditor General’s report further revealed that City Hall had paid a down payment of sh15.4 million before commencement of the repair works.
But appearing before the Public Accounts Committee, the Nairobi City Procurement Director Solomon Obiero explained that the cost of repairing the three lifts had been ballooned by the high costs of spare parts that were shipped from outside the country.
Mr Obiero said that replacing the lift would have cost more compared to just repairing them.
On the issue of single sourcing, he said that City Hall had advertised the tender on the dailies on July 9, 2013 but received no bids. They opted to single source the Schindler Company which had installed the lifts.
“After we had published the advertisement, no single company applied for the tender. That’s why we went the direct procurement way to Schindler Company who had installed the lifts in the first place,”said Mr Obiero.
The Director Procurement said that Schindler Company had set the condition of upfront payment because City hall had history on non-payment of debt.
“This County Government has had issues with payment of debts. For someone to agree to work, they need to be assured of their money,” said Mr Obiero.
