Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah on Tuesday, April 31, tabled a motion prepared by a private citizen alleging that there was alleged corruption during the tendering and construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project.
The petitioner argued before Parliament that SGR did not qualify to be a public project.
This was despite the Government of Kenya through Kenya Railways Corporation borrowing Ksh656 billion for the construction of SGR.
The petitioner who is a fraud risk management consultant stated that after undertaking a fraud examination of the project, he found out that it did not meet the criteria for a public project.
“The project neither did it qualify as a public contractual public debt,” the petitioner added on the billions borrowed at the expense of Kenyan taxpayers.
In a further argument on why the project should be investigated, Omtatah remarked that his petitioner had pointed out that the conceptualisation of the SGR project was not captured in Vision 2030.
The conceptualisation of the project was also not captured in the first medium-term plan 2008-2012 and Kenya Railways Corporation Strategic Plan.
As per the law, the petitioner argued that this was in contrary to the Public Finance Management Act 2012.
“There is no evidence showing if KRC as the procurement entity invited SGR tenders as provided under section 61 of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act of 2005,” it was further argued.
Closing his submissions, the petition faulted the multi-billion infrastructural project noting that there was no evidence KRC carried out the tendering process culminating in a contract agreement.
This is in contravention of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act 2005.
The project was undertaken during former president Uhuru Kenyatta’s tenure through funding from the Chinese government.
