BY SAM ALFAN.
Former Provisional Administration Permanent Secretary Dave Mwangi requested for direct procurement for Sh3.5 billion Anglo Leasing contracts due to its urgency, a Nairobi court has been told.
Chief investigator John Kiilu told trial magistrate Martha Mutuku that on August 29, 2003, Mwangi wrote to then Treasury PS Joseph Magari requesting for direct procurement for E-cops contract, claiming that the project was of high priority.
“From our investigations we found out that the project for E-cops was not a priority project as alleged by PS Magari and according to an audit by former controller and Auditor General Evans Mwai,” said Kiiru.
He added that investigations also revealed that the Kenyan government did not get value for money as there were massive irregularities in the police security contract termed as E-Cops.
Kiilu said that according to the special audit report compiled by Mwai, suppliers were not subjected to due diligence among other issues.
Further, the report indicates that there was no competitive bidding for the suppliers to the project.
The officer further tabled in court several letters from the office of the President and communication with the managers of infortalent limited.
Kiiru said that during investigations outside the country, he found out that the different addresses given by the firm that the Kenyan government entered into agreement with were not registered in Switzerland as alleged by the company.
He said that their Investigations on infortalent limited by the then Kenya Anti-Corruption commission (KACC) detectives revealed that money had been sent to other jurisdictions.
A letter tabled in court from PS Mwangi dated August 14, 2003 confirms to the Attorney General Amos Wako that the infortalent limited company was dealing with software and originated in India and shifted to Switzerland. The company was also planning to open other offices in different jurisdictions.
The court heard that Magari had written to the late commissioner of police Edwin Nyaseda to forward the proposals to buy the police equipment and accessories.
The letter according to the witness was asking the then commissioner whether the police requires the services as stated in a proposal for the police equipment.
“The letter was contrary to the laid down procedures on procurement laws. It should have been the user department writing to the PS. In this case, it was the other way round. It is the PS writing to the user department inquiring whether they need those services,” said the witness.
Kiiru added that during his Investigations he established that there was no involvement of police officers in the project to modernise the National police service.
The court also heard that it was not clear where the company that is at the centre of the Anglo leasing policing project was domiciled as investigations established that it was not registered in Switzerland.
He added that at the time of their investigations they got information that infortalent limited was domiciled outside the jurisdiction of the country and had to follow up the face of the company to know exactly where it was domiciled.
The court heard that the addresses used by infortalent limited while writing letters to the office of the president and the addresses used while signing the contract are different.
He said that Investigations into the Anglo leasing scandal were initiated following a special Audit report by Mwai dated April 2006.
The court heard the special report covered 18 police security projects among them the E-cops contract.
The officer was testifying in a case where , former PSs Joseph Magari, Dave Mwangi and David Onyonka and businessmen Deepak and Rashmi Kamani, together with their late father Rasmi Chamanlal have denied conspiring to defraud the Government over Sh 3.5 billion.
