MPs seek write off for Sh36m Kibaki office rent default

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Economy

MPs seek write off for Sh36m Kibaki office rent default


KIBAKI

Deceased Former President Mwai Kibaki. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Parliament wants Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) to write off a Sh36 million debt that the office of former President Mwai Kibaki defaulted in rent.

The National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee (PIC) says the rent arrears are unlikely to be recovered and KICC should write it off.

The Auditor-General had flagged the default, saying Kibaki’s private secretary’s office failed to pay rent for the three years it was domiciled on the 18th floor of KICC.

Nick Wanjohi served as Mr Kibaki’s private secretary between 2012 and 2017 in a period when he was expected to use the former president’s office block in Nyari Estate, Nairobi, that was bought in 2013 by the government for Sh250 million.

“The committee recommends that the debt be considered as a bad debt and written off if it cannot be recovered,” Abdulswamad Nassir, who chairs the committee, said in a report to Parliament.

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Mr Kibaki died on April 22 at 90 and was buried on April 30 in his ancestral Othaya home where he was accorded a State burial.

The law stipulated that taxpayers offer Mr Kibaki a fully-furnished office and about 40 workers, juicy retirement benefits, including a fleet of luxury cars.

The Treasury says that the office will cease to exist, and some of the workers will be declared redundant, with those on secondment reabsorbed in ministries and other agencies.

The government purchased the Sh250 million office block in Nyari Estate following a public outcry after the Treasury had set aside Sh700 million to acquire new offices for Kenya’s third president.

The Auditor-General’s office informed Parliament that KICC failed to provide the tenancy agreement for the space, but said that the accumulated rent arrears of Sh36 million were unlikely to be recovered amid fears of lack of a budget allocation for leasing office space.

“Available information indicates that the corporation’s (KICC) 18th floor was occupied by the Private Secretary to the third President for a period July 1, 2013, to July 1, 2016, accruing a total debt of Sh36,092,972 though no lease agreement was availed for audit review,” Auditor-General’s office said in an earlier qualified audit opinion of KICC books of accounts.

“The likelihood that the debts will be recovered remains doubtful.”

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Nana Gecaga, the director-general of KICC, told PIC the office space was requested by the presidency through the office of the Comptroller of State House.

“Management followed closely with a view to ensuring the office of the Comptroller of State House executed the lease agreement as it was the practice as required, however, the same was not executed after several persistent requests,” she said when she appeared before PIC.

“With a view to ensuring that the corporation did not continue to lose revenue, management then requested the occupants to vacate the office and the same was leased to another tenant and continued to pursue the recovery of rent arrears.”

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PIC said the correspondence from the government had never acknowledged that it gave the retired President the office space on the 18th Floor at the KICC.”

“This debt of Sh36 million was part of the total debtors captured in the books for which management was pursuing recovery,” Mr Nassir said.

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