Waiguru chief witness taken to task over tendering processes

The Senate will hold a special sitting on Friday 26^th June 2020 to consider the Report of the Special Committee investigating the impeachment of Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru.

Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka says the matter shall be the only business for the day and immediately after the Senate will adjourn until 7^th July.

Earlier, Waiguru’s defence team presented its first witness Carilus Otieno who is the Director of Procurement in the County.

Otieno was taken to task on awarding of tenders after the County Assembly’s legal counsel claimed two companies with similar names were awarded tenders amounting to millions of shillings without following the due process.

The County Assembly further claimed that companies founded in 2017 were awarded tenders in 2018 yet they hadn’t been in existence for the required period of time.

There was confusion which company between Velocty and Velocity was awarded a tender in the County with Otieno saying the contract with the wrong spelling was drawn by the legal team which still captured the typo.

He said they may have overlooked it because of time and volumes of the document maintaining that the actual company is Velocty and not Velocity.

Velocty had bidded both tenders as a joint venture. We usually encourage teaming to improve qualification and experience because we were dealing with a software. I duly recommended the award for the tender #WaiguruImpeachment ^MK pic.twitter.com/iFGq1hYMqG

— KBC Channel1 News (@KBCChannel1) June 24, 2020

Otieno said as a procurement professional, he knows and abides to procurement rules clarifying that the allegation that there were two parallel HMS systems in the ministry of Health were false.

Two employees of the County Government Pauline Kamau and Gichira Wayne featured prominently during the proceedings for chairing evaluation committees but Otieno told the committee there was nothing wrong with the two being nominated to chair the evaluation committees.

The witness maintained that the County didn’t incur any loss in the said allegations even as Lawyer Kamotho Waiganjo requested that they be allowed to introduce tender documents to correct payment dates discrepancies.

And after Waiguru failed to submit her passports as directed by the Committee, Committee Chairperson Cleophas Malala directed once again that the counsel for the Governor must “forthwith provide clear copies of the documents to the satisfaction of the Committee. The same may be provided in either soft or hard copies.”

And on whether the Governor should be taken to the stand over the copies of the passport, the Committee ruled that the County Assembly never requested for the Governor to be summoned to give evidence.

“It is also instructive to note that rules of fair hearing do not allow persons accused to be compelled to give,” the Committee ruled.

Click here for –>2ND FINAL H.E. GOVERNOR WAIGURU SENATE HEARING CLOSING REMARKS