Muthee: Why Under-18 event experience was 'bitter sweet'

The 2017 IAAF World Under-18 Championships were termed a great success, but some issues have been raised by the Auditor General on accountability.

Ayumba Ayodi sought out event CEO Mwangi Muthee for answers.

Question: What is your take on allegations by the Auditor General that Sh1.7 billion was misappropriated during the IAAF World Under-18 Championships Nairobi 2017?

Answer: I read with dismay that Sh1.7 billion was paid to companies that did no work. That is not true. I doubt the accuracy of the report since the contractors, consultants and suppliers earned the money.

When I joined the Local Organising Committee (LOC) as its CEO, the Kenya Parliament had approved a budget of Sh2 billion for the LOC.

Even from the previous 11 meetings the LOC had held since May 2015, it was clear they were discussing a budget only on recurrent expenditure.

They had not factored upgrading construction and in some cases completely new facilities at the competition venue, Kasarani and the Athletes Village Kenyatta University.

And this is where a colossal amount was required.

With President Uhuru Kenyatta’s intervention, just before March, 2017, seven relevant ministries were mobilized to assist, in money, kind and personnel, in the infrastructure outlay using their own budgets under the chairmanship of Gen Joseph Nkaissery, the Cabinet Secretary of Interior and Coordination of National Government.

So, the total championships expenditure incurred by the Kenya Government was far higher than Sh2 billion.

From the original Sh2billion budget, when I joined Sh200m had been released by Government to the Ministry of Sports and Culture and the Arts (MOSCA) account, but had been used in its various other programmes outside the championship.

When I was already in the LOC, Sh600m was released to the Sports Kenya account for the LOC to start planning activities. But I suspended expenditure, including paying allowances to the LOC, since the time they were inaugurated until early 2017.

This was only after I was confident that through the Presidential and inter-ministerial intervention that that money would have been available to ‘renew’ Kasarani and create Athletes Village at KU.

We had Sh600m for Kasarani and Sh400m for Athletes Village KU.

With the venue and the village catered for we were confident Kenya had an event.

By March, time was running out for the Championships in July. The LOC divided infrastructure development work into 14 contractors.

They did wonderful work in break-neck speed to meet their deadlines.

They worked day and night.

Some hard decisions were made.

For example, there was no way the LOC were going to cede the construction of the competition and warm-up tartan tracks at Kasarani to a contractor who would be subjected to IAAF certification queries; there would have been no time for ‘make-overs’ if approval wasn’t achieved first time.

The common sense was to have IAAF contractors do the work themselves and work according to their own specifications.

But let me make it clear, procurement of and payment to all contractors, consultants and suppliers was done through the official department and officers of MOSCA and Sports Kenya.

However, audit report should have been subjected to rigid but fair scrutiny by the office of the Auditor General who should not have taken the Internal Auditor report as an unimpeachable truth. The LOC too deserved to give its side of the story.

Q: What other decisions regarding, programmes and expenditure did you make?

A: The LOC was mandated to lay out World Under-18 Championships legacy and community social responsibility programmes.

We did and they are outlined in the LOC Report; from tree planting, environmental awareness.

But a flagship was capturing the chequered history of performance by Kenya track and field icons, heroes and heroines from pre-independence to date.

We brought and assembled in Nairobi nearly every living Kenya athletics icon from the colonial period to date.

The Kenyan veterans had never met under one roof and it was a nostalgic and captivating moment for themselves, fellow Kenyans and the world at large.

The IAAF President, Seb Coe, himself a British Olympic hero, and Cuba’s superstar Alberton Juantorena who were IAAF guests in Nairobi were awed by the presence of Kenyan sporting greats they had only read in the annals of history including Nyantika Maiyoro, Wilson Kiprugut Chumo and Kipchoge Keino, among many others.

The LOC gave our heroes heroines five-star accommodation at the Safari Park Hotel, close to the games’ venue and transported to and from competition throughout the whole duration of the Championships.

The Sh50,000 per diem token each of them received was too humble.

The LOC would have loved to do more.

The LOC managed to dress them in a truck suit and training shoes uniform.

They were indeed a spectacular highlight during the games to local and international youth and adults.

The LOC made this gesture from our savings, it was not in our budget.

Q: You say decisions on finance and procurement was solely MOSCA’s jurisdiction can you elaborate?

A: One purchase example: The LOC requested for the buying of one brand new Toyota VX Prado, two brand new Mitsubishi SUVs and three brand new NISSAN Urvans.

Unfortunately, only one SUV was used by our (LOC) chairman Jackson Tuwei and only for the final couple of weeks of the Championships.

The beneficiaries of the rest of the vehicles were MOSCA and they can be found at the ministry’s headquarters.

The LOC also effected the buying, of a timing equipment costing Sh40m, from Timex of Germany as a legacy to benefit the host member of the IAAF, Athletics Kenya (AK) who, henceforth, never needed to borrow one.

They previously borrowed from Uganda and South Africa.

This was not in the LOC budget. We effected it from our savings.

The LOC spent about Sh50m to renovate Stadion Hotel in Kasarani (property of Sports Kenya) and more than Sh15m to buy equipment for the same hotel to be used at the championship.

This was also outside our budget but the LOC needed the facility to be in a condition conducive for our use.

The LOC, in good faith, managed to do all the above which was outside our budget because the short-fall was made up for by goodwill in kind and services provided by the LOC and WU18 Championships partners.

The LOC had struck good rapport with the corporates including Safaricom, Coca-Cola, Sarova Hotels and Lodges.

We had been able to make lots of savings there.

Our dedicated volunteers were mainly youngsters who indeed received a lot of praise from including the IAAF President Seb Coe.

But perhaps the allowances, the youngsters felt were too meagre and they threatened a strike at the start of the games. We had budgeted to pay them for 10 days at Sh2,000 per day but we upped to Sh4,000 per day ending up paying over 14m outside our budget.

It is disheartening that to date, some suppliers, directors of the LOC, members of committees, technical volunteers like the medical personnel and members of the LOC secretariat are still owed by MOSCA a total of Sh150 m.

This totally unacceptable because as far as the WU18 Championships LOC is concerned, the National Treasury released all the funds for the Championships.

MOSCA was aware that LOC made a budget saving of Sh500m and if MOSCA and Sports Kenya can tighten their belts and pay those pending bills, then LOC would still make a final savings of over Sh300m from the WU18 Championships.

Q: How would you summarize the WU18 Championships’ LOC journey to a successful championship.

A: From planning, implementation and the eventual delivery, many a time it was painful and sometimes many officials contemplated quitting, I still hold many ‘quit letters’.

But to be honest, the story of WU18 Championships is a bitter sweet one; worth telling and with a very happy ending.

A story that earned accolades from far and wide in the globe; from the insiders, many of whom were privy to our everyday moves and reasons to our every decisions.

It’s a story the LOC and myself should be very proud and satisfied indeed.

I think those preparing for the future championships will have a suitable template to set their planning.

Q: Has the LOC completed writing the report about the championships?

A: Yes, the report is done and ready for roll-out. It will be of a lot of benefit to a lot of people, not only those involved in the forthcoming 2020 World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi but also by Government, corporate personnel and even sports managers and scholars.

The role of partners like Safaricom, Kenya Airways, Sarova Hotels and Lodges, Windsor Hotel and Country Club, Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Police Service, Airports, Borders, Volunteers, Kenya Track and Field Veterans, Kenyatta University, City County of Nairobi Government, Athletics Kenya, IAAF is captured.

Hopefully MOSCA will release it.

The uncensored account of the challenges and successes and a true reflection of the event.

Q: How would you rate your LOC for the WU18 Championships?

A: It was a representative group of Kenyan people of all walks in life.

The passion to succeed kept growing in them finally gelling into a formidable force that delivered when it mattered. 

All of us worked hard oblivious of notation from elsewhere, our passion was to succeed because that’s what was expected of us by our fellow Kenyans and were only pleasantly surprised when the IAAF asked me to accept a gold medal on behalf of my LOC. The LOC worked under very difficult situations some which needed intervention from the highest office in the land [President Uhuru Kenyatta] but I pay tribute to everyone who had a role to play.

Q: You have been accused of corporate fraud in rugby from where, as a reputable sports administrator you were head-hunted. What is your take?

A: That is also not true. My administration in Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) put Kenya on heady heights including building Kenya to the fourth best rugby sevens nation in the world when we reached the semi-finals of the Sevens World Cup in Russia in 2013.

Kenya rugby reached its highest commercial viability you cannot dream about these days. Goodwill from the corporate world was an unprecedented level.

When I joined the KRFU as its chairman, our budget was about Sh100m.

In two years after a selfless campaign to rope in all my corporate networks, the Kenya rugby was attracting Sh600m in total cash and kind, from main backers Kenya Airways, Safaricom, East African Breweries Limited [EABL], Bamburi Cement, Bollore Logistics, Coca Cola and UAP Insurance. Corporates are not stupid, they track down their money and most of these had confidence in my style of money management in those golden days of when Kenya rugby and Kenya Sevens rugby became ‘performance teams’.

By the way, my other personal passion was supporting our teams worldwide. I never turned a single cent meant for rugby to my use.

I paid for my hotels and food, always.

Incidentally, today most rugby programmes can barely do without funding by the Ministry of Sports, in my KRU tenure the corporates funded rugby 100 per cent!