MPs want auditor general to conduct audit over maize scandal

NCPB CEO Albin Sang when he appeared before the National Assembly Public Investment Committee on audit queries at parliament on June 6, 2018. [Boniface Okendo/Standard]

A parliamentary watchdog committee has directed the Auditor General to undertake an urgent forensic audit on alleged Sh1.9 billion maize scandal.

The Public Investment Committee (PIC) gave the directions even as the besieged National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) revealed it had sent two top managers on compulsory leave to pave way for investigations.

Acting NCPB Chief Executive Officer Albin Sang told the committee that the board’s General Manager for Finance John Gichuru and Finance Manager John Gichuru had been sent on leave from Monday.

Mr Sang also told the committee, chaired by Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir, that the Ministry of Agriculture was verifying stock in NCPB depots in Kisumu, Bungoma, Moi’s Bridge and Kitale to ascertain if the maize alleged to have been bought was stocked in the stores.

But the committee queried the ability of the ministry to make full disclosure on the scandal and the status of the grain in the said silos, with Mr Nassir saying it was suspicious that the Government had never considered ordering for a special audit on the matter.

The legislator noted that even the ongoing verification had not been initiated by Sang, who only assumed office two weeks ago following the resignation of former boss Newton Teren.