Revelations continue to emerge from a dossier leaked less than a fortnight ago on alleged irregularities in issuing of multi-billion tenders at Safaricom.
Last evening, a news report presented on local television channel NTV said that audit firm KPMG had uncovered at least 23 controversial tenders worth Sh. 289.4 billion. According to the KPMG report, these tenders had been issued within the last 23 months.
According to the NTV report, Mr. Collymore responded to the audit report by saying that it had not indited any of the top executives at Safaricom as having commercially benefited from the tenders.
When reports emerged on social media alleging that an internal audit at Safaricom had uncovered corruption related activities in issuing of major tenders, Safaricom CEO came out to state that he had commissioned the audit report and that it was still inconclusive.
“I commissioned the report sometime last year to KPMG who have done our forensic reports before and had recommended some changes in our procurement system. The report was prepared to see if these recommendations were being followed,” said Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore. He further adds that the report is still a draft that was unlawfully released.
The audit report notes that five senior executives including the Safaricom chief finance officer Mr. John Tombleson had influenced the irregular purchasing of plots at Garden City at bloated prices.
Apparently, Safaricom had irregularly paid Sh. 1.15 billion for five acres of land. This saw the telecommunications giant pay Sh. 230 million for an acre of land, which apparently was more than double the price of acre around the Kasarai area. Currently, an acre is going for about Sh. 100 million at the area. Safaricom has been planning to build its headquarters on this land.
Additionally, the audit report raised queries on how safaricom had paid out Sh. 1.2 billion to 7 marketing firms tomarket its brand and products, and procured corporate merchandise at Sh. 201 million from Vajas Manufacturers Ltd.
Other tenders that have been disputed include:
- Sh. 1.250 billion contract paid to Huawei for the upgrading of the M-Pesa platform.
- Sh. 160 million contract to South Korean firm Kaon Media for the supply of set top boxes which had technical problems.
- A billing system tender awarded to Huawei at a cost of Sh. 839 million.
- Sh. 1.2 billion tender awarded to Scanad which is a subsidiary of Scangroup.
- Sh. 201 million contract to GSM Systems for purchase of network spares management.
Top executives named in the report include:
- John Tombleson – Chief Finance Director.
- Roy Masamba – Director of Resources.
- Richard Muraszko – Group Property Strategy Manager at Vodafone.
- Billy Davidson – Ex-Vodafone executive.
- David Kinuu – Head of Human Resource – Shared Services.