The anti-corruption agency had recommended that Sports Chief Administrative Secretary Hassan Noor be charged in connection with the Sh791 NYS scandal.
A published investigation report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission covering January-March 2020 reveals irregularities in the award of an Sh21.8 million tender.
According to the report gazetted on July 24, 2020, the tender was given to Zeigham Enterprises whose director was Noor’s brother-in-law – Suna East MP Junet Mohamed.
Noor, who was then the senior director of administration at the Ministry of Devolution and National Planning, was the chair of the tender committee that awarded the contract to Zeigham Enterprises.
Zeigham Enterprises, whose directors are Junet and his brother Hussein Mohamed Haji, was awarded a contract to supply machine belts, submersible pumps, and a centrifugal clutch cut section.
“Investigations established that the Technical Evaluation Committee recommended the award of the tender to the said company despite it not meeting the technical specifications set out in the tender document,” the EACC says in the report.
The new probe could haunt Junet, a confidant of Opposition chief Raila Odinga, following his links to the firm that won the contract.
The commission says Noor failed to disclose conflict of interest, despite knowing that he was married to Junet’s sister, Meymuna Sheikh Nuh.
According to the EACC, Zeigham Enterprises wired Sh21,670,000, being part of its payments from NYS, to a company owned by Noor, revealing a clear case of conflict of interest.
The EACC had on January 13, 2020, compiled an investigation report and forwarded it to the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji for approval.
However, the DPP returned the file to the EACC on June 24, 2020, recommending consolidation of the file with other NYS cases and calling for further investigations.
The EACC had wanted the ministerial technical evaluation committee members prosecuted alongside Noor for willful failure to comply with the procurement laws. It also wanted Noor and the tender committee members to face charges of conflict of interest and abuse of office.
The anti-corruption body is now expected to launch thorough investigations with the aim of sealing loopholes before Noor and his accomplices are arraigned.