This is follows articles appearing in a section of the media linking Scanad, owned by WPP Scangroup, to alleged procurement irregularities with the telco/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 20 – Safaricom and WPP Scangroup have issued separate responses with regards to KPMG report authored for Safaricom and tabled in Parliament.
This is follows articles appearing in a section of the media linking Scanad, owned by WPP Scangroup, to alleged procurement irregularities with the telco.
In a statement, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore has reiterated zero tolerance to corruption or any unethical or inappropriate activities saying the draft report, which was in its initial stages and subject to further discussion, was made public illegally.
“As a responsible company, from time to time Safaricom seeks the views of external experts to ensure that compliance and governance processes are effectively implemented. In this regard, I commissioned KPMG to conduct a study of a number of projects we have undertaken in the recent past. In that regard, KPMG prepared a draft report for consideration by Safaricom which was illegally made public,” Collymore says.
He further says that those behind the leaking of the draft report are out to create a negative perception and to execute reputation attacks on the telco.
“We firmly believe that individuals behind this seek to intimidate, blackmail and extort Safaricom. We will not allow this to happen.”
Safaricom says that it has since forwarded the matter to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations for a probe.
On its part, WPP Scangroup says it participated in a tender process to provide creative and media services to Safaricom between December 3013 and January 2014, of which it became successful and was awarded the contract.
“The article indicated that payments of Sh2.1 billion had been made by Safaricom to Scanad during the period. These amounts were paid in the normal course of business and are not disputed,” reads the company’s statement.
Further, the company says that the payments were for the media that Scanad acquired on behalf of Safaricom for production costs of TV and radio advertisements plus other fees, hence no irregularities. Additionally, total billings for similar services for all clients for the WPP subsidiary during 2014-15 was Sh33.7 billion.
Earlier this month, National Assembly speaker Justin Muturi directed the departmental committee on finance, planning and trade to investigate the tender dealings at Safaricom and report back to the House within 60 days.
