By PETER LEFTIE pmutibo@ke.nationmedia.com AND ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com

Top Foreign Affairs Ministry officials have been put on the spot over the loss of Sh185 million in the purchase of Kenya's embassy in Tokyo. A report by the country's last Controller and Auditor General, Mr Anthony Gatumbu, wants all ministry officials who participated in the deal held to account for the loss of the funds.

The recommendations are likely to pile pressure on President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to explain the reasons for reinstating Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang'ula and permanent secretary Thuita Mwangi even after Parliament's departmental committee on Defence and Foreign Relations held them responsible for the scam.

According to Mr Gatumbu's report, appropriate disciplinary action should be taken against all ministry officials who failed to observe government procurement procedures by single sourcing various consultancy services during the purchase of the embassy.

Though the report does not implicate Mr Wetang'ula in any wrongdoing, it questions the role of Mr Mwangi and the then Charge D' Affairs, Mr Allan Mburu, in the signing of two sale agreements for the same property. â€Å"Although the agreement was signed by Mr Mburu, the officer does not appear to have been duly authorised in writing by the accounting officer to sign the agreement on behalf of the government. The validity of the agreement is therefore in doubt,â€Â� the report states.

â€Å"On June 30, 2009, another purchase and sale agreement on the same property was drawn and signed between the permanent secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Government of Kenya and the vendor, Mr Nobuo Kuriyama. Apart from the fact that it has not been possible to establish the purpose of signing two agreements for the property, it has also not been clarified as to which one of the two was in force and would therefore be made reference to should a legal need arise in future,â€Â� the auditor notes.

Handle property search

The report faults the PS for giving the ministerial tender committee authority to hire the services of one Mr Akiyoshi Ohtake to handle property search and prepare the sale agreement despite the fact that he was not even a qualified lawyer and without any terms of reference. â€Å"Apart from the fact that Mr Ohtake was not a qualified lawyer, it has not been explained how he was identified and a fee of Sh404,898 for the services arrived at,â€Â� says the report.

The Controller and Auditor General accuses the tender committee of ignoring the valuation report by the Commissioner of Lands, which put the value of the property at Sh1.2 billion. Instead, the tender committee approved the purchase price of Sh1.4 billion, a figure that exceeded the government's valuation by Sh185 million.

â€Å"Apart from failure by the committee to adhere to the value given by the Commissioner of Lands, it has not been clarified how the price of Sh1,430,733,899 for the property was arrived at,â€Â� the auditor queries. The Kenya National Audit Office has also questioned why Sh1.3 billion of the price was paid in cash, contrary to procurement rules. The auditor noted that perhaps the reason for the cash payment was to obfuscate the money trail.

Process was flawed

The auditor is categorical that the process was flawed and that it was carried out in a â€Å"poor and inadequate mannerâ€Â�.

â€Å"Failure to contract appropriate and suitably qualified professional services and to carry out diligence checks on various firms and parties during various stages of the procurement process exposed the government to considerable risks,â€Â� the auditor notes in the report. The auditor also questioned the veracity of reports that the Japanese government offered land, saying there was no evidence that such land had been offered.

The team that scoured Japan for a suitable plot concluded that the land was more costly and located in an unsuitable place. The auditor further states that the land in question was half the size of the plot on which the Kenya embassy stood in Japan in addition to being sandwiched by high-rise apartments. He also proposed further investigations into the embassy sale and the fire that gutted the embassy last February.