MPs give KPA two-week ultimatum to respond to audit queries

Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) has been given a two-week ultimatum to furnish evidence supporting the alleged irregular payments of salaries and allowances during the 2019/2020 Financial Year.

The National Assembly's Public Investments Committee on Commercial Affairs and Energy on Thursday gave the ultimatum following the alleged irregular payments flagged by the Auditor General.

The Office of the Auditor General alleges that in the 2019/2020 Financial Year, there were suspected irregular payments amounting to Sh2 million in salaries and an additional Sh54 million in allowances, exceeding the standard working hour rates recorded in the Authority's management system.

Committee Chairperson David Pkosing directed members to prioritize an inquiry into the matter. He also instructed KPA Managing Director Captain William Ruto to provide the committee with evidence, including the names of individuals paid and their corresponding working hour records.

"This is no small money. You also need to explain to this Committee why these payments of allowances are this high," said Pkosing.

The legislators resolved to take a two-hour break to allow the KPA team to produce the requested documents. However, by Thursday afternoon, the sought-after evidence had still not been provided to the lawmakers.

The MPs subsequently decided that the KPA team should take two weeks to organize their affairs and present themselves before the Committee during a session in Nairobi.

In the financial audit reports spanning two years, the port agency faced allegations of employing 262 individuals and assigning them to fictitious roles within the organization's structure.

"What was more alarming is that these fictitious positions were associated with substantial salary disbursements, amounting to a total of around Sh629 million," MPs said.

KPA responded to the issue by stating that they have implemented system locks since March 2021, which resulted in salary stoppage for three consecutive days of absence, effectively addressing the problem of absenteeism and ensuring full remuneration.

The KPA management was found to be in breach of the law for employing the said individuals contrary to the State Corporations Act, 2012 which states that ‘a state corporation may engage and employ such number of staff, including the Chief Executive, on such terms and conditions of service as the Minister may, in consultation with the Committee, approve.

The audit review records revealed that the basic salary was paid based on the hours worked as clocked in the time management system.

Other queries whose interrogation is still pending include suspected undercharging of storage revenues to the tune of Sh6.2 million in the 2019/2020 Financial Year.

The Office of the Auditor General also noted that KPA could not account for the accuracy and validity of the license fee of Sh92.6 million collected for the year ended June 30, 2020.