By Betty Luke
The cost for purchase and installation of oxygen plants at Isiolo Referral Hospital and Garbatulla Sub-County hospital whose contract was irregularly awarded by the county government to Hitmax Limited to a tune of Sh79 million five years ago was exaggerated, EACC has revealed.
The inflation by a whooping Sh18 million was established following an independent valuation by the agency after a complaint over alleged irregularities in the tendering process was raised in September 2018.
Hitmax Limited was among the five companies that applied for the work and which was awarded the tenders ICG 018/2017-2018 and ICG 019/2017-2018 despite having not been the lowest bidder, EACC investigations show.
The other companies that quoted lower for the Referral Hospital works were Yellow Fibre Africa Networks Limited, Total Hospital Solutions Limited, Pulse Healthcare Ltd and Debra Ltd.
Documents seen by the Press Point show that the company charged Sh52 million for works at the Referral hospital and Sh27 million for those at Garbatulla hospital both totaling to Sh79, 853, 738, money that was wired to the company’s bank account.
Five months before the complaint was lodged, the company had transferred Sh39, 925, 869 to Hamilton Harrison & Mathews law firm’s account for purchase of a mansionette in Lavington erected on LR No. 3734/937 that EACC early last year (2021) valued at over Sh50 million.
The company had transferred other monies to other accounts with a trail by EACC detectives leading to Sh13 million held in two accounts that the agency later got consent to freeze.
EACC, two years ago, filed a recovery suit in Milimani High Court No. 18 of 2020 seeking to get back the Sh79 million and obtained temporal injunction orders to preserve the Sh13 million in two accounts and the Sh50 million property in Lavington.
A year after filing the recovery suit, Hitmax Limited wrote to EACC seeking to settle the matter out of court and offered Sh10 million.
The application was allowed and an Alternative Dispute Resolution deployed and the two sides entered into a conditional agreement and consent deposited in court.
Under the local arrangement, the company was ordered to among others undertake corrective measures on the oxygen plants supplied to the county government to the EACC’s satisfaction and also deposit the Sh18 million into the agency’s account.
EACC officials’ privy to the issue told The Press Point that the corrections had been done and verified to have met the required standards.
The temporal injunction orders for the frozen Sh13 million and hold the property were consequently lifted in a consent that was adopted by court on June 9, 2022.
