Ministry of Labour To Provide Detailed Report On Disposed Government Vehicles

The Ministry of Labour is expected to provide documents on the auction of top-of-the-range government vehicles at cheap prices by today, Monday, July 15, at the close of business.

The government vehicles in question were reportedly sold at throwaway prices, some being sold for as little as 32,000 shillings.

Opiyo Wandayi, the chairperson of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) asked the Ministry of Labour to provide names and addresses of the buyers of the vehicles and also for the individuals who came up with the pricing.

He told the Permanent Secretary (PS) for Ministry of Labour Mr. Peter TUM to provide MPs with authenticated records of the auction.

According to Mr. Tum, the Ministry of Transport gave the Ministry of Labour the low bid prices that auctioneers used for the sale of the vehicles.

“All the luxury vehicles were disposed off at a reserved price determined through an objective and independent process by Ministry for Transport and infrastructure,” said Mr. Tum.

During his summon by the committee to respond to questions concerning the audit, Mr. Tum told the committee that in all that, there was no loss of public funds or assets.

His statement was however contradicted by Auditor-General Edward Ouko who said that the vehicles were sold at ridiculously low prices leading to the loss of public funds.

According to the auditor, this loss was as a result of plans between government officials, auditing firms and other parties too.

In his report, Auditor-General Ouko mentioned three vehicles whose buying prices were receipted and were found out to have attracted higher bids than what was received.

He also said that of the cars that were disposed of, most were fairly new while the old ones have been left at various state departments.