Jets transport firm overpaid by Sh35m

The company that transported jets for the Kenyan military from Jordan was overpaid by Sh35 million for the job, its managing director said on Monday.

Union Logistics managing director Haspuk Radia attributed the billing error to staff at the freight company based in Nairobi and sought to assure MPs that the overpayment would be resolved with the Department of Defence.

“We had made errors on billing them (DoD) on shipments but we have sorted things out, corrected the bad invoices, and the matter is being resolved,” Mr Radia told the Defence and Foreign Relations committee.

He said his company was informed of the overpayment by a Col S.K. Kimondiu, who wrote to them in February, last year, asking for the amount to be refunded.

Six senior officers have had to leave the military after the discovery of the blunder last year. They are Maj-Gen E.M. Sasia, a Lt-Col Rono, Brig Arthur Owuor, Col Joseph Ojwang, Lt-Col Joseph Matasio and Col Kimondiu.

Mr Radia said the differences arose after the DoD said the rates charged by Union Logistics were different from those set out by the International Air Transport Association.

He told the MPs that even after several corrections on invoices and other documents, the DoD claimed in a letter written last Friday that the amount due to them was now Sh8.6 million.

Union Logistics lawyer Mutula Kilonzo Junior said the company was at the time of the overpayment owed Sh26 million in outstanding invoices and that would be subtracted from the excess amount.

A meeting between the two parties is scheduled for tomorrow, Mr Radia said.

But his explanation for the error, which he had initially refused to admit, did not satisfy MPs on the committee led by Mr Adan Keynan.

The team is investigating the circumstances that led to the dismissal of the six officers who were involved in processing the firm’s payments.