It has now been established that senior officials at the Water Services Trust Fund worked with national and county water agencies to manipulate procurement estimates with the objective of diverting public funds.
One of the clearest examples involved Tavevo Water and Sewerage Company Limited under tender No. TVOTVTTCW000620232024, which was floated for the construction of the Kaloleni Water Supply Project in Taita Taveta.
Documents show that the Trust Fund, in close coordination with Tavevo, orchestrated a scheme where critical bidding information was deliberately shared to influence the outcome of the process.
What was expected to be independently handled by engineers was in reality driven by estimates issued from within the Trust Fund.
Instructions for this interference reportedly came from WSTF Chief Executive Officer Willis Ombai, directing the estimates to be distributed to allies within Tavevo.
A project distribution breakdown in our possession shows that while the Trust Fund had budgeted Ksh 46,506,478.32 for the project, the figures quoted by engineers ballooned to Ksh 61,431,064.20.
The first planned disbursement was pegged at Ksh 36,744,690.19.
Additional figures were loaded into the estimates, including Ksh 5,210,529.14 for unspecified measures and Ksh 3,332,079.67 marked as contingency costs, which pushed the total to Ksh 69,973,673.01.
This far exceeded the available budget of Ksh 52,973,673.00 as allocated by the Trust Fund.
Following this development, the Commission for Human Rights and Justice wrote to Tavevo demanding all records tied to the procurement process.
The lobby group demanded access to the minutes and full report of the tender valuation committee and called for the cancellation of the entire process.
“You advertised for the aforementioned tender no. on or about 23/2/2024 wherein the tender submissions deadline was slated for. Meanwhile and since the tender was meant to suit certain individuals or your cronies, you extended the submissions deadline to 15/3/2024 vide the addendum notice dated 7/3/2024,” reads part of the letter.
It continues: “Moreover, whereas section 42 of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act forbids any collusion and whereas any bidding ought to be competitive and Engineer’s estimates ought not to be shared, the Engineers estimates were shared with your cronies since the tender was tailor made to give an unfair advantage to them.”
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Open in new tab The fund was established to coordinate funding to water bodies countrywide but has increasingly acted as a pipeline for misappropriation of taxpayer and World Bank funding.
The group intends to lodge a formal complaint with parliamentary oversight teams.
CEO Willis Ombai has previously been cited for abuse of office.
The Auditor General’s report for the financial year 2021/2022 flagged an irregular disbursement of Ksh 37,182,159 to Noltuesh Water under the CLSG programme, where Ksh 5,467,479 could not be accounted for.
In the same period, another disbursement of Ksh 24,650,000 to Amatsi Water Services Company Limited was made while earlier funds amounting to Ksh 26,659,238 from FY 2020/2021 had not been accounted for, even as investigations remained open.
