THE STANDARD By
Frankline Sunday |
February 28th 2021 at 00:00:00 GMT +0300
Telkom Kenya has handed over the National Fibre Optic Backbone Infrastructure (Nofbi) to the government amid questions over the fate of hundreds of millions in fees collected from the utility in the past five years.
This comes on the back of a parliamentary inquiry following concerns raised by the Auditor General that taxpayers’ money could be getting lost in the key infrastructure project.
In a report published last month, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu flagged an opaque tendering process that saw Chinese firm Huawei granted an automatic extension on its tender and a Sh1.7 billion payment to begin Phase Two of the project.
Queries as ministry takes over national fibre project from struggling Telkom standardmedia.co.ke - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from standardmedia.co.ke Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
THE STANDARD By
Harold Odhiambo |
February 26th 2021 at 00:00:00 GMT +0300
PSs from various ministries at a stalled road project on Kakamega road in Kisumu yesterday. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]
Contractors tasked with delivering the national government’s multi-million shillings projects in Kisumu are racing against time to complete them ahead of a strict April deadline issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The President wants the revival of the railway line, completion of the port, a marine school, a road project as well as a power plant complete by April.
Yesterday, a committee tasked to oversee the implementation of the projects inspected them and put the contractors to the task to confirm whether they will beat the deadline or not. The projects were birthed after President Uhuru’s ‘handshake’ with ODM leader Raila Odinga.
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THE STANDARD
SCI & TECH
ICT PS Jerome Ochieng during the launch of National Fibre Optic Backbone Information Network in Kisumu. (Collins Oduor, Standard)
The Auditor General has flagged the multi-billion National Fibre Optic Backbone (NOFBI) project over opaque tendering processes.
She said the taxpayers’ resources could have been lost in the project. In 2018/2019, the State Department of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) paid Chinese firm Huawei Sh1.7 billion for the construction of the second phase of NOFBI.
However, according to the Auditor General, there are no details in respect to the date the payments were made or who authorised the Exim Bank to release the payments.