Troubled KAA Boss Alex Gitari
The Office of the Auditor General has lifted the lid on the puzzle of Sh205 million parking revenue that was collected by the Kenya Airports Parking Services (KAPS) at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) but not remitted to the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) as per contractual agreements.
In a report tabled in parliament last month, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu noted that the amount includes Sh132 million, which represents 65 percent of KAA’s outstanding revenue arrears in the past nine months.
Ms Gathungu says it remains unclear why the firm has not been forwarding the revenue to KAA despite entering into a binding arrangement on how they should remit the collected funds to the agency.
According to the report, the recoverability of the amount due to KAA remains doubtful.
KAA and KAPS entered into a concession agreement for installing, operating and maintaining an automated car parking management system at JKIA in August 2019.
The deal stipulated that KAPS shall pay KAA a concession fee of 82 percent of parking revenue collection.
The payment from KAPS was subject to a minimum annual guarantee of Sh20 million payable in equal monthly installments.
The authority renewed the KAPS contract in September 2018 after they disqualified a firm known as Endeavour Africa (K) Ltd, which was found most responsive, for allegedly presenting fake papers.
KAPS was the second most responsive firm and was awarded the tender.
But the two other bidders, Mason Services Limited and Qntra Technologies Limited, contested the decision at the review board, arguing that KAPS is a foreign company.
The Public Procurement and Administrative Review Board (PPARB) 2019 cancelled the contract awarded to it by the KAA and disqualified it from participating in the tender.
This prompted the firm to move to court, seeking to salvage the lucrative contract to run its car park system at JKIA.
Recently, KAA introduced new standard parking fees at Kisumu International Airport and Mombasa’s Moi International Airport after taking over control of the car park systems at the two installations.
Under the new arrangement, the KAA says it will manage parking operations at the two airports on an interim basis as it prepares to issue a fresh tender.
Mason Services Limited previously held the contract for installing, operating and maintaining an automated car park system at both airports.
The developments are coming at a time KAA boss Alex Gitari finds himself on the radar of powerful State House forces that are out to have him punished for his contribution to Raila Odinga’s presidential campaigns.
Gitari is among prominent individuals who were used by the retired regime to offer financial assistance towards the failed Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) and subsequently, the ODM leader’s failed presidential bid where billions of taxpayers’ money were wasted.
Their key role was to facilitate corruption in favour of those who were bootlicking former president Uhuru Kenyatta and frustrating William Ruto’s presidential bid ahead of the August 2022 general election.
It is because of Gitari, general manager HR Anthony Njagi and some rogue CSs like Joe Mucheru and Fred Matiang’i that Ruto, during his campaigns, complained of state capture and promised to crush them once elected president.
Workers at KAA have also been lamenting impunity at the hands of Gitari and Njagi which has left them heavily demoralized.
Additionally, the duo is accused of negotiating collective bargaining agreements with the workers’ union only to dishonour such deals.
A case in point is when they allegedly negotiated with the workers’ union for a 13 percent pay rise in salaries, but as workers were waiting to harvest at the end of the month in 2016, KAA broke their end of the promise and defaulted.
It is imperative to note that ever since the KAA board of directors confirmed Gitari as the MD effective July 8, 2021, for three years, the institution has been linked to several scandalous deals under his leadership.
This included a plot to fast-track the deal to hand over Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Kenya Airways.
Kenya Airways had submitted a proposal to KAA to run the airport for 30 years while paying concession fees to the operator.
Gitari’s name was also featured in the mystery that surrounded Covid-19 gear that China billionaire Jack Ma donated to Kenya at a time Covid-19 was ravaging the country.
The Kenya Civil Society group, while protesting the theft, noted that Gitari in his capacity as KAA MD should have come clean about how the consignment was stolen since he was part of the government dignitaries who received the donation at the airport.
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