Nairobi waste scandal: Company worked ‘29 hours’ in a day

A garbage site in Kamkunji, Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

A company operated for ‘29 hours’ in a day collecting garbage for Nairobi County government, an audit committee was told.

The shocking report by the Auditor-General’s office was revealed to Nairobi County officials during a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) session on Thursday.

The report revealed that a backhoe belonging to Creative Consolidated Systems on April 16, 2017 worked for '29 hours' according to an odometer.

The same equipment was also found to have operated for 23 hours per day nonstop for a whole month as per the same odometer reading analysis.

SERVICES

“Creative Consolidated Systems was paid Sh10.3 million for street sweeping, litter bin emptying, solid waste collection, transportation and disposal services and provision of insurance for April, 2017,” read in part the Auditor-General’s 2016/2017 audit report.

The revelations were just a tip of the iceberg as more irregularities were exposed. A garbage vehicle on July 18, 2016 was weighed twice within 4 minutes between having delivered garbage weighing 11.75 tonnes and 13.65 tonnes respectively from the city centre to the Dandora dumpsite.

“Puka Investment was paid more than Sh7.1 million on August 24, 2016 for collection of garbage from CBD. Consequently, the county government may have paid for fictitious machine hours’ claim,” said the report.

The report also revealed that the Environment department paid more than Sh184 million to firms that were collecting garbage outside their designated zones as per contract with the county.

“It was noted that the firms operated in zones or areas in which they were not prequalified to operate. A review of payment vouchers revealed that the firms irregularly collected 98, 118 tonnes from such zones translating to Sh184.6 million. Consequently, the payments were made contrary to the binding agreement,” said the report.

The committee chair Wlilfred Odalo, who had summoned Environment chief officer David Makori and acting county secretary Pauline Kahiga, adjourned the meeting to Monday next week because the officers failed to table all the documents needed by the committee.