Mwiraria approved direct procurement for Anglo Leasing project, court told

The anti-corruption court on Wednesday heard that former Finance minister David Mwiraria approved direct procurement for the controversial Anglo Leasing E-Cops project.

Mr Kenneth Njoroge, who was a director of procurement at the Treasury, told the court that the minister was mandated by law to either allow a firm to follow the procurement procedures or engage in direct procurement.

“When it came to security and there was need to keep the nature of the project secret for the sake of national security, the firm seeking to implement the project would be allowed not to follow the procurement rule,” he said.

The E-Cops project sought to link all the police stations in the country so as to improve efficiency and collaboration in fighting crime and maintenance of law and order.

Mr Njoroge was, however, put to task by prosecution counsel Nicholas Mutuku on why the debt department within Treasury was the one that evaluated the project and not the Office of the President, under which is the Kenya Police, which was to benefit from the project.

He said Treasury must first be satisfied with the project whose implementation it is required to fund.

Mr Wilson Kipsang, former director of IT in the Ministry of Finance, said the firm that was to implement the project had responded to issues raised regarding structural, procedural, and operational challenges in the police service.

He said the contractor had said they were willing to revise the deal to accommodate the changes which had been proposed by the ministry.

Hearing will resume on Thursday.