Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu who said KNBS paid rent of Sh163.083 million between October 2017 and June 2019 for their headquarters at Real Towers when the premises were not occupied.
| File | Nation Media GroupNews
Premium
State agency paid Sh300,000 daily for unoccupied space in Upper Hill
Taxpayers paid Sh299,234 daily as rent for 545 days for unoccupied space after the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) failed to partition it in time for occupation.
The revelation emerged Tuesday during a meeting between KNBS bosses and the National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee (PIC) to consider an audit report for the agency for the financial year to June 2019.
Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu points out in the report that KNBS paid rent of Sh163.083 million between October 2017 and June 2019 for their headquarters at Real Towers when the premises were not occupied.
This means that KNBS paid Sh9 million per month for 18 months as it waited for a contractor to complete the partitioning of the new offices in Upper Hill, Nairobi.
The agency had been given a three-month grace period and the rent started accumulating in January 2018.
“Value for money was not realised on the payment of the lease amount of Sh163, 083,000 between October 2017 and June 2019 when the premises had not been occupied and the Bureau was in breach of law,” the report says.
Provide contract documents
The committee now wants KNBS to provide all documents related to the agreement with the contractor to find out who caused the delay in partitioning the offices and led to taxpayers paying for idle space.
Vice-chairperson and Wajir North MP Ahmed Abdisalan described the arrangement as abnormal and a rip-off.
“This not only abnormal but illegal. We need documents related to the building and any other communication between KNBS and the Ministry of Public Works,” Mr Abdisalan said.
KNBS Director-General Macdonald Obudho told lawmakers that the delay in partitioning the building was caused by the main contractor and that impacted the other contractors, who could not conclude their works on time.
Extended twice
The contract was extended twice and two default notices were issued by the State Department for Public Works, which supervised the work.
On the high rent paid by KNBS, Mr Obudho said the rates came from the State Department of Public Works.
“Yes, I agree the rent is high but we are also guided by the framework from the public works and as an institution we (work) within those regulations,” Mr Obudho said.
He said the procurement process for partitioning work was not completed within the three-month window provided in the contract because designs and drawings and preparing a bill of quantities took a lot of time.
Besides identifying contractors through an open tender, he said, getting “the service provider for mechanical works had to be re-tendered due to non-responsiveness of the initial bidders”.
But he told MPs that KNBS started using part of the office space in January 2019 for the 2019 census preparatory activities, storage and distribution of census materials and setting up the Census Data Centre.
