Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) Officials have been put on the spot over alleged crooked dealings that saw the management use their influential positions to carry out deals without following due procedure.
Various documents had been called into question by Parliament which noted that two companies, under the Bureau’s approval, had been involved in dealings to import goods into the country.
According to a report in Parliament, two meetings were convened to discuss the contracts for the importation of cars into the country. The first meeting reportedly saw the officials review the contents of the document.
A second meeting allegedly saw the officials who had opposed the document, kicked out of the meeting in order to allow the document to pass. The document was officially passed in December 2019 by Standards Council Chairman, Bernard Ngore who put pen to paper.
Two companies, a Japan-based firm, and a local company were then awarded the tender. This caught the keen eye of Justice Paul Kihara Kariuki who noted that the Bureau had not followed due procedure while issuing the tender. Numerous officials from the Bureau have been on the spot over corrupt dealings in the past.
Recently, managing director Bernard Njiraini was apprehended in July 2020 where he was accused of frustrating the work of investigative agencies looking into payment of bribes for pre-export conformity for goods including mobile devices, as well as involvement in suspicious procurement deals.
He allegedly failed to provide 15 sets of crucial documents to aid investigations into the procurement irregularities. Njiraini’s predecessor, Charles Ongwae, was in January 2019 charged with abuse of office and conspiracy to deny the government tax revenue.
Ongwae was charged alongside 14 others, with 31 counts over an alleged tax evasion scheme that led to the loss of Ksh64 million in government revenue.
