EACC arrests Tana River officials over shady tender
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission detectives arrest six Tana River County officials over alleged procurement irregularities, on August 2, 2018. PHOTO | CHARLES LWANGA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The county officials were interrogated at EACC offices in Malindi and later taken to a police station.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has arrested six senior Tana River County officials over alleged irregularities in the awarding of a Sh30 million tender for construction of collateral water tanks.
EACC's Upper Coast Regional boss Gichangi Njiru on Thursday said the suspects will be charged at Malindi Law Courts tomorrow with willful failure to comply with procurement law, fraud and uttering false documents.
"We are still pursuing four other suspects: some are senior county executive members..We have been pursuing the matter since the year 2016," he said at his Malindi office.
INFLATED COST
Mr Njiru said the case involves the procurement of water tanks which had been budgeted for Sh5.1 million but the amount was inflated to Sh30 million.
"Investigations also revealed that the company which was awarded the tender had not met the qualifications, and the professional opinion from the procurement head officer was also missing," he added.
The anti-graft boss said further investigations had revealed that the company exaggerated the price of each tank.
The county officials were interrogated at EACC offices in Malindi and later taken to a police station.
At the same time, Mr Njiru said the agency is pursuing a series of corruption claims in Kilifi and Lamu counties.
