By FRED OLUOCH,
A case filed in the United Kingdom against a printing firm has exposed rings of corrupt public officials in Kenya, Ghana, Somaliland and Mauritania, who are reported to have received thousands of dollars in bribes to influence the award of tenders.
The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has put Smith and Ouzman on trial for dishing out $680,000 to officials in the four countries between 2008 and 2010 as inducements for the award of jobs to print ballot papers, voter identification cards, examination materials and plastic envelopes.
“In each of these countries, directors and senior employees of S&O, and agents employed by S&O in those countries, agreed to make corrupt payments to officials and employees working for institutions in those countries in order to obtain printing contracts and to ensure repeat business in the future,” state court documents filed by prosecutor Mark Bryant-Heron.
In Kenya, the court documents reveal, the UK firm paid $545,091 to officials of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) to win the tender for printing electoral materials for the 2010 referendum and two by-elections. Their agent in Kenya was Trevy James Oyombra.
In Mauritania, $76,182.83 was allegedly paid to an official at the Ministry of the Interior, while $32,000 was paid to the firm’s agent in Somaliland as bribes to officials of the National Electoral Commission to supply election materials.
In Ghana, the contracts had a value of $426,140. From that sum, $38,403 was allegedly paid to Bill Amarteifio, the company’s agent in Ghana, and $19,344 to Elliot Agyare, who had instructions to pay bribes to West African Examinations Council (WAEC) officials between January and September 2009.
Nicholas Smith, Timothy Forrester and S&O are charged with arranging to pay bribes to officials at the Ministry of the Interior in Mauritania in respect of a contract to print ballot papers. S&O’s agent in Mauritania was Karim Reaich.
The contracts were valued at $ 902,069.75. Of that amount, the UK firm allegedly agreed to pay $76,182.83 to the Secretary-General Mohamed El Hadi Macina.
In Somaliland, the contract for election materials was $1 million, and $32,000 was allegedly given to Abdi Omar, who in turn paid $12,314 to corrupt officials via a third party.
In Kenya, those adversely mentioned are the IEBC chairman Issack Hassan, former chief executive of the commission James Oswago, current Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir, who was a senior manager with the defunct Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) and Paul Wasanga, the former Kenya National Examinations Council chief executive.
All have denied the allegations and accused Mr Oyombra of fleecing his employer through fabrications.
But John Githongo, the former anti-corruption permanent secretary, who is credited for blowing the whistle on Anglo Leasing scandal, told The EastAfrican that systemic corruption had become worse with the entry of global corruption networks.
He said civil society had blown the whistle on the IIEC procurements, adding that the body’s credibility had been seriously damaged.
“If such corruption is happening in an institution that oversees elections once in five years, then one can assume that it is far worse in other sectors, especially service sectors such as energy. Unlike 2002/2003 when the government tried to fight corruption, it is now part of national character,” said Mr Githongo.
Kenya Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) spokesperson Yasin Aila said that the commission has been sharing evidence with the SFO for the past three months in the hope of prosecuting those involved in Kenya.
He said the commission was investigating the IEBC on three issues: The biometric voter registration kits procurement, the procurement of voter identification devices, (for which the former chief executive James Oswago is in court), and the tender on the printing of voting cards and other materials.
Mr Aila said the cost of the BVR kits jumped from Ksh6.1 billion ($66 million) to Ksh9.6 billion ($104 million).
The commission is also investigating the Kenya National Examination Council, after it emerged that over the past eight years, examination papers have been printed by the UK firm without open tendering.
The UK prosecutor has accused the former Knec chief executive Paul Wasanga of receiving £5,000 ($7,821) from Smith & Ouzman to print certificates.
But Mr Wasanga has denied the allegations, saying that he was not a member of the tendering committee and that the firm had been awarded the contract in the 1980s before he became the Knec boss.
Source: The East African
