The House watchdog committee was told that Ngunyi’s ‘The Consulting House’ was contracted to do rebranding for NYS at a cost Sh102 million which was in excess by Sh12.5mn/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 15 – The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) wants political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi to refund Sh12.5 million, with interest, which he received from the National Youth Service as an overpayment.
PAC Chairman Nicholas Gumbo led MPs in protesting the overpayment during a meeting with Devolution Principal Secretary Lilian Omolo where it emerged that Mutahi’s company is yet to reply to the ministry’s demand for a refund.
The House watchdog committee was told that Ngunyi’s ‘The Consulting House’ was contracted to do rebranding for NYS at a cost Sh102 million which was in excess by Sh12.5mn.
“Surely you cannot keep somebody’s money for a year – and its public money – and then you say I realised I was overpaid, and you did not take it and refund it. There are so many things that you could do with that money, the man could have built houses and sold them,” he asserted.
Omolo said The Consulting House had initially written to the ministry saying they were willing to refund any money paid in excess but despite three letters written to them by the ministry no response or refund has happened.
The committee also stopped the payment of Sh212 million owed to former radio presenter Angela Angwenyi.
“Out of the Box is not to be paid until this matter is sorted out. We concur with EACC that this contract looks very suspicious. We also don’t understand, it is very suspicious when Round Trip Kenya became Out of the Box and until that is sorted, the remaining amount should not be paid,” said PAC chairman who is also Rarieda MP.
The Devolution PS confirmed that Out of the Box has received Sh90 million which accounts for 60 percent of the completed work they were contracted to do for NYS.
Angwenyi’s company is currently under investigations by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) which directed that no further payments should be made by the ministry to it until investigations are complete.
On Wednesday, Ngunyi failed to appear before the Committee to answer to queries raised by the Auditor General about the multi-million-shilling NYS scandal.
Ngunyi wrote to the Committee saying he had not received an invitation to appear before it because the House Committee clerk used an old email address that he no longer used.
PAC Chairman confirmed that the issue had been rectified and that a fresh invite had been sent to Ngunyi to appear before the MPs next week.
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