Ministry on the Spot After Selling Posh Kenya Gov't Vehicles for Sh32,000

The office of the Auditor General has exposed how an action by Ministry of Labour led to loss of millions of taxpayers' money.

In an audit report, Auditor General Edward Ouko detailed how the Ministry sold expensive government vehicles at extremely low prices, leading to loss of public cash running into millions of shillings.

For instance, the Ministry sold a Volkswagen Passat that had not been used for long for only Sh32,000. This was the case for 17 government vehicles sold under former Cabinet Secretary Phyllis Kandie.

“Some of the top-of-the-range vehicles were sold for as low as Sh32,000 with no visible damage and had a reserve price of Sh30,000, attracting a bid price of Sh100,000, but still ended up fetching only Sh32,000 and from a different bidder,” said Ouko.

“GKA 253E, a Nissan patrol, had a reserve price of Sh100,000 and attracted a bid price of Sh1.8 million but only Sh130,000 was receipted.”

In his report, the Auditor General questions why fairly new cars were disposed off, leaving old and grounded vehicles in the various yards of the ministry.

Ouko recommends for action against state officials, auctioneering company hired to sell the vehicles and the parties that colluded leading to the loss of public funds and assets.

“It was not clear how the auctioneer was procured and awarded due to various discrepancies in correspondences between the auctioneer and the head of procurement at the ministry,” he said.

The audit report for the year ended June 31st, 2017 was tabled in the National Assembly by Majority Leader Aden Duale on Wednesday.

Ouko said the Ministry failed to supply details of the auction for audit verification. The Auditor General also detected massive financial misuse at the ministry running into hundreds of millions of shillings.