NYS paid Sh1.64bn to companies whose directors are unknown, documents show

The controversy-ridden National Youth Service paid out Sh1.64 billion worth of contracts to 40 companies whose directors are unknown, documents presented to a parliamentary committee have shown.

The Sh1.64 billion included Sh820 million paid to six of the 20 companies belonging to Josephine Kabura, who separately received Sh1.6 billion from the agency, but that were listed in the document as having no contact.

In all, the Public Accounts Committee has been presented with a total of 224 transactions worth over Sh4.8 billion made in the 2014/15 and the 2015/16 financial years that the team last week said will now be used to cast a wider net in the probe.

The new document, presented to the committee led Rarieda MP Nicolas Gumbo, has cast new doubts on the integrity of the payments made to other firms besides those belonging to Ms Kabura, who appeared before the team early this month.

The Devolution ministry’s document shows the money, the banks it was paid to, the dates and each company’s Integrated Financial Management System (Ifmis) number.

NOT CLEAR

It is, however, not clear how the 40 companies came to be in the system without contacts or lists of directors.

In the 18-page document, Brand Associate Ltd received Sh157 million for rebranding the agency, payments made between November 2014 and March 2015 and was marked as with “no contact” in the directory.

Of this, the company received Sh26 million for consultancy services in rebranding, Sh61 million as “mobilisation fees”, and a further Sh69 million for “rebranding NYS media”.

A company with a similar name, Brand Associates Ltd, received Sh17.4 million on September 2015, six months after the former was paid Sh26 million for the same function of consultancy to rebrand the service.

Brand Associate and Brand Associates were listed as having the same Ifmis and bank account numbers. Brand Associates was listed as directed by a Justus Wairimu.

Last week, the committee said it had expanded its investigations after revelations that 17 more banks handled the billions following the presentation of the document. Previously, only 11 banks were listed as having touched the agency’s loot.

“All we can say for sure is that it is running into several billions and off our fingertips; it is definitely more than the figures that you’ve heard in this room,” said Mr Gumbo last week.

NO CONTACT

Ms Kabura’s companies that were listed as having no contact are Reinforced Concrete Technologies (Sh320.2 million); Roof and All Trading (Sh253.3 million); Benchmark Coaching (Sh7.9 million); and Tucking Stitch Emporium (Sh79.3 million).

Others are Brain Craft Training (Sh144 million) and Learning Gate Trading (Sh15.9 million).

The document reveals that the agency paid two of Ms Kabura’s firms — Reinforced Concrete Technologies and Roof and All Trading — a total of Sh570 million in different tranches within five weeks between February and March 2015 for supplying the same thing.

The two companies both have accounts at Family Bank.

Similarly, the document has listed Brand Spark Supplies Ltd as having received Sh18 million to supply a “GUF Away Model four cylinder four-stroke car engine” while Netwool Mart Trading received a total of Sh36.9 million to supply computers and “ICT hardware”.

Other firms listed as having no contacts but which won multimillion-shilling tenders are Kabira Ventures, which won two Sh50.39 million tenders, and Millennium Instrumentation Ltd, which received Sh20.9 million.