House team summons poll chiefs over vote kits tender

Plans to have a new IEBC for 2017 underway

What you need to know:

  • Issack Hassan and Ezra Chiloba had been summoned to answer questions of impropriety raised by another watchdog.
  • PAC investigations into biometric voter registration kits procurement exposed massive irregularities.
  • Mr Hassan oversaw the procurement as chairman of the electoral commission.

A parliamentary committee has summoned top electoral commission officials over alleged procurement irregularities that cost taxpayers Sh4 billion.

Justice and Legal Affairs Committee chairman Samuel Chepkong’a said the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Issack Hassan and chief executive Ezra Chiloba had been summoned to answer questions of impropriety raised by another watchdog team.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigations into the IEBC procurement of biometric voter registration (BVR) kits and other electronic gadgets, which failed during the 2013 elections, also exposed massive procurement irregularities.

Mr Hassan oversaw the procurement as chairman of the electoral commission, while Mr Chiloba, who took over as CEO just over a year ago, is reported to have paid Sh250 million irregularly to a supplier.

“We need the IEBC to appear before us to answer questions of irregular procurement uncovered by another committee of Parliament before we can approve its budget for the 2016/17 financial year,” he said.

IEBC has requested a Sh45 billion budget to prepare for the next elections, amid claims that it could be compelled to procure more electronic gadgets to be  used in the next elections.

Mr Chepkong’a, who is also MP for Ainabkoi, said the meeting with the IEBC chiefs would be a follow-up one, in which they would be expected to update the MPs on the preparations for the 2017 elections.

He said the lawmakers wanted to know whether IEBC will procure equipment similar to those it used in the 2013 elections, and the justification for it.

Questions over the integrity of the commission have arisen, especially from the bungled procurement, equipment failure and the “Chickengate scandal”, with calls for the IEBC commissioners to quit.

The PAC report indicated that Sh3.9 billion was lost in the government-to-government procurement deal for the BVR kits with Canada, after the commission bungled the open tendering process.

The French Government, which had earlier won the deal, was reportedly locked out in the procurement for the kits after the government roped in a Canadian firm that was allegedly paid huge allowances for its brokerage services.