Former REA CEO Munyu summoned by EACC over audit report on power supply to schools

Former CEO of the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) Ng'ang'a Munyu

The immediate former CEO of the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) Ng'ang'a Munyu has been summoned by anti-graft agency to clarify on the findings of an internal audit report.

Munyu is supposed to appear before the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission on Friday, September 27 to clarify on discrepancies noticed in the number of schools that were supplied with power between 2015 and 2017.

“As of October, 2016, it was clear to the Board that there was an issue with the identification of the primary schools electrified, or the data presented to the Board, and therefore, the Board initiated an audit,” reads part of the report.

The report was prepared for the Energy Cabinet Secretary but was later leaked to the EACC.

The board of REA is also supposed to shed light on the findings of the report when they go to EACC.

Munyu had been suspended by the board during the audit period together with Authority Secretary, Manager – Procurement, Manager – Internal Audit and Manager – Human Resource and Administration.

EACC wrote to REA CEO on September 19 summoning those targeted.

The audit exercise indicated that a total number of 22,063 public primary schools were electrified as at December, 2016 which was a contrast with the data presented to the ministry by Management during the meeting held on December 19, 2016 which indicated that the number of electrified schools stood at 23,337.

“The Management explained that the difference in data was due to lack of a proper list from the Ministry of Education,” reads the report.

Further, according to Management, the number of primary schools kept changing with each new “discovery” of schools when REA staff were in the field, and also following continued construction of new CDF primary schools.

These reasons were also given to justify the constant change of completion dates.

The Board undertook a second and more extensive audit covering four scopes in line with the letter from the Cabinet Secretary. They included Electrification of public primary schools by grid networks, solar systems and off grid projects – Gensets.

They also looked into transformers and related issues, Material Procurement and Quality for primary school electrification project and for Constituencies grid extension project and Human Resources capacity. 

“However, following the suspension of the senior officers of the Authority, the staff members felt free to engage with the Board and became a resource to this audit,” says the report.

The report found out various offenses including abuse of office by Senior Managers, incompetence, intimidation and gagging of staff, misleading of board by management through misinformation and manipulation of data and deliberate sabotage of systems and processes.

It also established poor planning of the Authority projects and activities by Management and loss of resources of the Authority due to deliberate actions of Management and/or incompetence.

“To this end, the board finds the following to bear the largest responsibility over the issues highlighted in the Report- CEO, Manager, Internal Audit and Procurement, Authority Secretary, Manager ICT, and

Manager, Human Resource and Administration.”

The report was tabled in June 2017.