The auditor-general has revealed that the government missed its projected collections from the Last Mile Connectivity Project by Kshs 10.0 billion after collecting Kshs 1.0 billion against the projected Kshs 11.0 bn as at 30th April, 2022. According to the report, revenue collected from the Kshs 63.0 bn project was set to repay loans obtained from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the International Development Association (IDA).
Nancy Gathungu, Auditor-General, attributed this shortfall in loan repayment to the delays in project, unrealistic loan recovery period, inadequate project awareness among the beneficiaries, delays in metering and stolen and fraudulent use of the meters amongst others. She also added that the installation of service cables to non-existent homes, unreliable power supply, faulty meters, frequent blackouts and transformer breakdowns also adversely affected the project.
Additionally, the report highlighted some of the additional costs incurred in form of office space, rent doe storage of materials and transportation costs owing to the extension of the consultants’ contracts that should have run for six months after the post project completion.
Read: Auditor General Flags Ksh2.3B Discrepancy In Kenya Power’s Payments
As at 30th April 2022, the time of the audit, none of the three phases of the project were completed. The project began in 2015 and was set to be complete within 18 months. However, by the time of the audit, two of 10 contracts in phase one were incomplete, while five of the six and three out of 15 contracts under phase two and three respectively were incomplete.
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