MPs: Private audit firms could be complicit in massive looting

Questions are being raised on whether parastatals under the Ministry of Energy  have been colluding with private auditing firms to cover up massive corruption.

The Kenya Pipeline Corporation (KPC), the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC), the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO), and the Geothermal Development Company (GDC) are all multibillion state parastatals that have been flagged over graft allegations by investigative agencies despite being cleared by private audit firms.

On Friday September 1, The Nation reported that the National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee (PIC) through its chairperson AbdulSwamad Nassir has raised the red flag over possible collusion between officials of the organisations auditors and the auditors.

Of keen interest to the Mvita MP is why investigative agencies such as the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the National Audit Office always find dirt where the private audit firms fail.

“It is suspicious that all these state corporations audited by the private firms are always given a clean bill of health every year yet those audited by the Auditor General have issues flagged down against them,” The Nation quoted Mr. Nassir.

Mr. Nassir wants DCI Director George Kinoti to probe the matter as he says Kenyans are losing billions of shillings to looters. 

“DCI should dig deep and tell us how the private audit firms clear the parastatals yet when it sends investigators there; it unearths massive rot and sends the top management to court. There is something sinister going on,” added Mr. Nassir.

The audit firms in question are PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) and Deloitte which are contracted by the National Audit Office to look into the accounts of the state corporations.

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On June 19, EACC CEO Halakhe Waqo revealed that KPC lost Ksh600 million of taxpayer money through overpricing in the procurement of hydrant pit valves.