'Parliament increased cost to remodel by Sh171m'

NAIROBI: The Auditor General has queried a Sh171 million cost variation of the tender for the remodeling of the Senate chamber and Parliament offices.

The Parliamentary Service Commission paid Sh2.3 billion against the budgeted figure of Sh2.2 billion.

The report revealed that the work was delayed beyond the deadline of February 16, 2014. The contract had been signed in September 2012 and was to start in October for 72 weeks but had not ended by the set date.

By June 30, 2013 the commission had paid Sh1,174,158,899. It then paid another Sh1,206,434,852 by June 30, 2014 making the total payment Sh2,380,593,751. This resulted in a variation of Sh171,420,273 from the original figure.

The Auditor General says there were no records to show that the tender committee had approved the variation.

The contract did not also stipulate who was to be financially responsible for the delay. Records also indicated that Sh78.2 million had not been refunded to various companies contracted by PSC.