Shock of Nema funds leakage

The chair of the parliamentary committee on lands and natural resources Mutava Musyimi. Photo/ FILE 

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU (ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com)
Posted Tuesday, March 8 2011 at 16:02

The fraud syndicate at the Ministry of Water continues to claim more culprits with officials of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) now roped in, it emerged on Tuesday.

Parliament’s Committee on Lands and Natural Resources said Nema had undercharged for the environmental licenses issued for the construction of five dams in different parts of the country.

The total cost for the construction of the dams is Sh9.6 billion, of which Nema was to recover Sh9.6 million - 0.1 per cent of the actual project cost, but instead got Sh2.2 million.

In effect, Nema lost Sh7.4 million - enough to pay school fees for 264 high school students in rural Kenya for a full year - to the corruption cartels within the ministry and the regulator.

“This is scary,” committee chairman Mutava Musyimi (Gachoka) told Nema’s acting Director-General, Dr Ayub Macharia and Mr Benjamin Langwen, the director in charge of enforcement and compliance.

The duo from Nema told the MPs that they had collected Sh2.2 million in fees for the construction of dams.

The Nema bosses said the discrepancy in the figures was because the value of the projects indicated in the environmental reports submitted (to Nema) for approval was not the actual cost of constructing the dam.

“Sometimes we get a raw deal, because the proponent will come with his value, and since we’ve no capacity on the ground it becomes difficult to follow-up,” said Mr Macharia. “The cheating takes place at the client level.”

But MPs Benjamin Washiali (Mumias), Silas Ruteere (Imenti North), Benedict Gunda (Bahari), Peris Simam (Eldoret South) and Justus Kizito (Shinyalu) rejected the explanation.

“Are you part of this cheating?” posed Mr Kizito. “This money was being hidden somewhere, so can you tell us if you’re part of this cover-up?”

Variance

The gist of the MPs’ argument was that Chemususu dam in Koibatek district had been valued at Sh4.9 billion, yet Nema charged Sh439,100 - instead of Sh4.9 million.

There’s also the Badasa Dam in Marsabit, which according to government records had a construction budget of Sh2.39 billion, yet Nema issued a licence after collecting Sh912,834 instead of Sh2.39 million.

Other huge variances were recorded in Umaa dam where the regulator was paid Sh439,100 in licence fees, yet the construction cost of Sh824 million would have attracted Sh824,000 in licence fees.

The other two dams at Maruba and Kiserian also had such huge variances which the officials from the environment regulator did not understand.

“It is shocking to us that you can still come here and give us figures where the variance is this yawning, because really, we are on two different continents,” said Mr Musyimi.

But Mr Langwen said the consultants who carried out the environmental impact assessment had duped the regulator about the actual cost of the projects, but now that they had been discovered, they will have to top up the amount. The consultants, picked by the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation are registered and licensed by Nema to conduct the assessments.

He added that Nema had employed a quantity surveyor in late 2009 to assess projects submitted for licensing in order to determine the true value.

The MPs, having visited the dams, took the view that Nema’s officials had not visited the sites.

“Is your business just about issuing licenses or do you exist to protect the public?” Mr Washiali asked. The Mumias MP noted that “in Kiserian, there were pit latrines in the site for dams”, yet the regulator went ahead to issue licenses and has not, to date, monitored the progress.

Mr Langwen noted that the license was issued and promised to visit the site to make sure that the mitigation measures that had been proposed are taken into account.

“We just had time to do a desk study...we promise the committee to visit this dams and do a full report,” said Mr Macharia whose role at the helm of Nema came under scrutiny.

He said Nema had a staff of 320 instead of the required 960.

Committee hearings will continue on Wednesday.