House team fails to finalise report on De La Rue deal

The Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday failed to finalise the report on the suspected loss of billions in connection to currency printing in Kenya.

The exercise to compile the final report that would shed light on the contract between the Government of Kenya and De La Rue Company at Pangoni Hotel collapsed after the committee cited lack of technical support and matters of integrity.

PAC chairman Bonny Khalwale said the committee lacked materials — including documents, statements from witnesses and verbatim recorded information of the witnesses.

Mr Khalwale, the MP for Ikolomani, said PAC invited senior officers from the Auditor General office and the Auditor General himself but no one attended.

“We failed to get the official recordings of witnesses and these have not been made available to the committee,” he said.

He said due to lack of crucial information, PAC could not conclude the investigation on the De La Rue saga and this led to suspension of the sittings.

Mr Khalwale said officials from the Auditor General’s office had failed to attend the sessions at Pangoni Hotel and this forced the MPs in the committee to return to Nairobi.

“We are surprised to see that the Auditor General never sent even a junior officer. The only thing that we managed to receive was a text message informing us of their unavailability, “he said.

Mr Khalwale also said PAC would surmon the Auditor General in Parliament to explain why “he was sabotaging the committee”.

“We will also ask the Clerk of the National Assembly why he refused to make available the verbatim recordings so that we can write our reports. This has never happened before,” Mr Khalwale said.

The PAC chairman alleged that a Nairobi politician was stalking members of the team in Mombasa and had wanted to bribe the committee with Sh1 million.

“Yesterday, the politician called one of us and tried to persuade him to have a meeting at a beach hotel with hope of doctoring the report in a manner that will suit some highly connected politicians, “he claimed.

Mr Khalwale also said he talked to the politician, who was not afraid to offer sh 1 million for the deal.

He said the alleged politician had a lot of influence and was linked to well connected politicians.

Asked to name the politician, Mr Khalwale said he could not do so at this time because it would pose a threat to the life of the MP who was first contacted.

“As a committee we have refused to be influenced and we will try the best we can to see that the report is completed within the next 5five months before Parliament is dissolved,” he said.