E-Clips:- Business Pictorial - Firm In Sh7 Billion Scandal Blacklisted

ANGLO Leasing, the company involved in massive tendering scandals worth billions of shillings has been blacklisted.

Finance Minister David Mwiraria told Parliament yesterday that the government will not engage in any further business with the company. He said recent contracts awarded to the company, including the Forensic Sciences Laboratory and Immigration Security Documentary Control Systems have been cancelled and all monies paid to the company recovered. The projects were valued at nearly seven billion shillings and included the passports deal said to be worth Sh 2.7 billion and the building and equipping of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) forensic laboratories at about Sh 4 billion. Anglo Leasing was already paid Sh224 million for the projects.

Mr Mwiraria said the external financing of the forensic project had been withdrawn following the adverse publicity it had received. The minister said there were no outstanding contractual agreements with the firm at the moment. Mr Mwiraria was issuing a ministerial statement in the House following protests from MPs who questioned the manner in which the tendering was done. The MPs were infuriated that the company got the tender through single sourcing.

He said the Forensic Sciences Laboratory contract could not take off although the agreement was signed in 2001 because the company failed to secure approval for the site in Karura forest. He said the architectural works had also not been approved, adding that the government had made its commitment to the project through promissory notes.. Asked by Oburu Odinga (Bondo-Narc) why the company had been paid in advance, the minister said the payment was normal. Embakasi MP David Mwenje said the company should be blacklisted since it was conning the government of billions of shillings through projects which never materialised.

Deputy Speaker David Musila stopped the minister from commenting further on the passport tender which could costs the government Sh2.7 billion since the matter is already under probe by the parliamentary watchdog committee on public finance.

And contributing to the budget speech Dr Abdullahi Ali (Wajir North-Kanu) said all the directors of a local company Kamsons Limited should be blacklisted from doing any business with the government. He claimed that the company whose directors have been linked to Anglo Leasing Company had in 1993 been associated with the company that sold the controversial Mahindra vehicles to the police force. Mr Joseph Nyagah (Gachoka-Narc) asked the government to be prudent in financing projects which were beneficial to ordinary Kenyans. Mr Nyagah said the government should not rely on donors to finance its programmes since the development partners spelt out harsh and unrealistic conditionalities before releasing their funds to the country.

He said the budget did not address the plight of the coffee and tea farmers and lamented that the prices of essential commodities and petroleum products were still beyond the reach of the common man. Mr Daniel Khamasi (Shinyalu-Narc) said the back bench will not approve funds for useless projects. He said the increased fuel prices were worrying and needed to be curbed. Mr Khamasi said senior civil servants in ministries were frustrating ministers since they spent government money on projects without proper consultations