{UAH} Pojim/WBK, a refresher course!Anglo Leasing is back, the thieves are falling out - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

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Anglo Leasing is back, the thieves are falling out - Comment

By L. Muthoni Wanyeki
Posted  Saturday, May 10  2014 at  13:57

Anglo-Leasing is back. Eighteen contracts for the ostensible supply of security equipment and services. Twelve contracted under the Moi regime. Six under the Kibaki regime. Worth, at the time, a total of $397 million and 309 million euros.

The first problem with the contracts? Their structure, in which one company "lent" money to another company to "supply" the said equipment and services. Except that it was the Government of Kenya using taxpayers' money to finance the "lending" companies -- generously including interest payments.

It could have procured the equipment and services directly itself, but this would have allowed for parliamentary scrutiny of the purchases and auditing by the Controller and Auditor-General.

Other problems with the contracts? The lack of competitive bidding.

The overpricing of equipment and services. The non-delivery of equipment and services -- unsurprisingly, given that some of the companies either "lending" or "supplying" simply didn't exist.

The method of GoK payments -- through promissory notes, which can pass from one company or person to another and be redeemed by any company or person who presents them.

Finally, the discovery that some of these lending and supplying companies -- those for which evidence of existence could be found -- were related. By supposed company addresses. By supposed directors. By cross-financing across contracts.

It was nothing more than an ingenious plan to steal our money. By officials in the Treasury and the politicians they worked for. By the "businessmen" associated with the companies whose names kept popping up -- Deepak Kamani and Anura Perera among them.

John Githongo, then ethics permanent secretary in the Kibaki government, broke the story -- having to go into exile to do so. What followed was a flurry of activity. Denials. Partial admissions.

Attempts to shove it under the carpet by claiming the money had been returned. Half-hearted investigations. Serious condemnation by parliament. Some tracking of finances abroad. Some freezing of assets abroad -- the Swiss, for example, froze $200 million in related assets.

Some investigations abroad -- the UK's Serious Fraud Office was on the job until it gave up, citing non-cooperation by the GoK.

Kenya being Kenya -- subject to so many scandals that our attention-spans are necessarily limited -- Anglo Leasing died down.

But now it's back. With the decisions by British and Swiss courts that the GoK is required to pay First Mercantile Securities as well as Universal Satspace. To the tune, interest accruing, of apparently Ksh1.6 billion (almost two billion dollars) as of February this year.

The executive passed the buck to parliament. An attempt by the Law Society of Kenya to obtain High Court orders blocking the Treasury from making the payments failed -- the court citing separation of powers and the wish of the judiciary not to interfere with parliamentary oversight of the executive.

Curiously, Jubilant parliamentarians have said no. The Senate's finance committee has also said no -- not so curiously, given that it is chaired by Billow Kerrow, who was involved in the Parliamentary Accounts Committee's investigation at the time.

Namely, what explains the Attorney-General's orders to the legal teams in Switzerland and the UK not to include evidence of criminality in the GoK's defence against the claims by First Mercantile Securities and Universal Satspace? Or the refusal by the Department of Defence and the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission to share relevant information? Or the non-payment of legal fees for those conducting the GoK's supposed defence?

But the main questions now are whether, given the GoK's lack of seriousness about protecting our money, the British and Swiss judgments can be rescinded? If not, and the GoK has to pay against the claims, surely they should seek to do so out of the assets already frozen in respect of Anglo Leasing?

Let the ghosts pay the ghosts -- at least we won't lose any more of our hard-earned taxes than we already have.

Politically, the question is why this came up now and what is truly going on among the Jubilants. Who in the executive is pushing this and why? Who in parliament is resisting this and why?

Is this yet another power-struggle between The National Alliance and the United Republican Party? Should we congratulate the Jubilant parliamentarians for supposedly standing up to the executive?

We know there's a battle -- vicious at times -- between the TNA and URP brokers and fixers, old school and new. We should read this whole saga with that battle in mind.

L. Muthoni Wanyeki is Amnesty International's regional director for East Africa. This column is written in her personal capacity.

Anglo Leasing is back, the thieves are falling out 

Anglo Leasing is back, the thieves are falling out - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Anglo-Leasing-is-back--the-thieves-are-falling-out-/-/434750/2310004/-/daqfyc/-/index.html

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