The recent appointment of Faith Boinett as the chairperson at Kenya Pipeline for three years has sent some of thew former and current top officials into panic mode. Faith Boinett, sources add, is targeting specific cases where taxpayers may not have gotten value for their money. One such case is the Ksh. 500m penalty waiver under former Board Chairperson Rita Okuthe together with then CEO Dr Irungu Macharia handled; both could be in trouble for striking a deal with four oil marketing companies that stored oil products in its facilities for longer than the agreed timelines.
Former Board Chairperson Kenya Pipeline Company Rita Okuthe
The re-appointment of former MD Joe Kimutai Sang as Acting Managing Director with effect from 23rd January 2023 has also sent cold shivers down the spine of some top officers at Kenya Pipeline believed to have plotted his arrest and arraignment in court over alleged corruption. Mr Sang and Bett are said to be on a mission to clean up the corporation.
Regarding the waiver, reports indicate that the four companies were billed and invoiced for overstayed product penalties in the period between 2018 to 2021. However, penalties amounting to Ksh. 495,942,077 were subjected to a waiver by the former Board in a meeting held on 18th May 2021. The waiver was not approved by the Cabinet Secretary for The National Treasury or the Cabinet as provided for under Regulation 148(6) and (8) of the Public Finance Management (National Government) Regulations, 2015.
This regulation requires any write-off above Ksh. 100,000 to be approved by the Cabinet Secretary and any write-off above 1% of the entity’s budget to be approved by the Cabinet. Also to be re-visited is the Ksh. 18,859,250 donated by Kenya Pipeline to a charitable trust towards the construction of the Mount Kenya electric fence on 29th April 2021.
Documents available reveal that the donation was based on a request dated 24th March 2021 from the Trust. However, the fencing project was not traced to the Corporate Social Investment (CSI) plan approved by the Board for the year. The former board is also on the spot over a Ksh. 2.9m tender for Consultancy Services in which Kenya Pipeline sent quotations to four firms for labour relations services and consultancy services but later terminated as only one of the firms responded. KPLC later appointed the firm that had responded for a contract sum of Ksh. 2,900,000 under a single sourcing method.
