Members of the Parliamentary Investments Committee (PIC) GOOGLE IMAGES

Kenya Paid Sh115 Million to a non existent “American national”

Members of Parliament were Tuesday shocked by revelations that the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) paid more than Sh100 Million to a non existent American national for an ICT project that was never delivered.

A Parliamentary Committee probing an alleged loss of Sh180 Million at the fund were told that two multi-million shilling contracts were awarded through single sourcing against public procurement regulations.

Managing Director of Quorandum Company Limited Mukuria Ngamau, told the Parliamentary Investments Committee (PIC) that he indeed executed the disputed payment.

Quorandam Limited was to provide consultancy services for an ICT strategy design, within a period of seven days, at a cost Sh65.9 Million.

In a second contract, Mr Ngamau’s firm was to render consultancy on design of specifications for software to manage operations of the fund at a cost of 114.9 million shillings.

After securing the second contract, Mr Ngamau revealed to PIC that he paid a whopping Sh115 Million to an American identified as Donnie Collins Reeves, for some of the work.

The MPs decided to search online for details of the said Mr Collins and to their disbelief, the search returned an obituary of an American who died at the age of 61 years.

The Quodrandum MD, further disclosed that he had never seen or met the American national, yet he sent him (Collins) the collosal amount through his Chase Bank account.

Last week, amid the ongoing probe, PIC heard that senior YEDF officials colluded with a top bank to defraud money through malicious activities and payment of non-existent services that led to loss of Sh400 Million.

The Sh400 Million in question had been deposited in a Chase Bank fixed account, but could not be accounted for, with the lawmakers expressing concerns that the scam might be bigger than the one at National Youth Service (NYS).

Chairman of the YEDF Bruce Odhiambo admitted having acted unilaterally in appointing the fund’s suspended CEO Catherine Namuye, as the sole signatory to the bank account holding the Sh400 Million.

While Ms Namuye was the sole controler of the YEDF bank account, she transferred Sh180 million to a Quorandum Limited for consultancy services, and another Sh65 million to the Fund.

Interestingly, there is no contract to show what consultancy services Quorandum undertook for the Youth Enterprise Fund.

The Fund cannot account for the balance of Sh155 million left in the account.