Kenya; Trade unionist Francis Atwoli blows whistle on Sh130b projects

Kenya: Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) Secretary General Francis Atwoli has accused the National Social Security Fund's (NSSF) Board of Trustees of plotting to misuse Sh130 billion of workers' funds.

Mr Atwoli accused the board of  awarding tenders for two projects that had lapsed without carrying out a feasibility study and restricting the tendering to 15 firms.

He said the NSSF board illegally picked contractors for the two projects that had been abandoned as 'ill-conceived' by NSSF's previous management, one in Mavoko Municipality and the other one on Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi. "They are using minutes of 2011 to defraud in 2015 and they know money will be plenty because they want contributions of NSSF members to be increased," Atwoli told The Standard on phone from Switzerland, where he is attending an International Labour Organisation meeting.

According to the 2011 minutes for the initial projects, the plan was to build 30,000 housing units on 1,010 acres as the first phase with another 30,000 housing units to follow. The developers were to complete construction within five years.

Under the Public Procurement and Disposal Act 2005 the total cost of the two projects automatically makes them candidates for public tendering where interested firms should be invited to hand in their Expressions Of Interest (EOI).

The Cotu boss (above) accused the current NSSF board of ignoring the recommendations of the Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA), opting to go ahead with the projects under a private public partnership scheme that allows them to restrict tendering for the ventures.

He warned that such restricted tendering in public projects is prone to abuse and opens the door for kickbacks that make their costs prohibitive. The Standard is in possession of the bid documents for the projects as well as pre-tender minutes for both projects dated October 30, 2013 from a meeting allegedly held at the fund's offices in Nairobi.

Tender documents for both projects will be opened on April 8 and 9, but Atwoli said: "The NSSF as constituted now has no substantive membership to its Board of Trustees, there has been no feasibility study on these projects to warrant their execution nor has there been a budget for such huge projects to be undertaken."

He said the current NSSF management should have officially asked for approval of the PPOA to use restricted tendering for both projects, which is allowed under Section 92 of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act 2005, as well as Cabinet approval.