The National Assembly’s Public Investment Committee on Commercial Affairs has scheduled probes of key parastatals following queries running into billions of shillings.
The entities are lined up to answer to the audit queries before the House watchdog team for the next three months.
Six, including Kenya Power, Kenya Railways Corporation, Kenya Revenue Authority, Lake Basin Development Authority, ICT Authority and the National Irrigation Authority, are scheduled to face MPs this month.
The PIC chaired by Pokot South MP David Pkosing is further scheduled to hold meetings with 10 other state agencies by the end of June this year.
They include Kenya Pipeline Company, Kenya Ports Authority, East Africa Portland Cement, Kerio Valley Development Authority, National Water Harvesting Authority, Ketraco, Kenya Forest Service, KICC and EPZA.
“An analysis of the Auditor General reports for the state corporations indicated that the materiality audit queries varied across the state corporations with a few have very significant issues,” Pkosing's team said.
For Kenya Railways, the committee is gearing up to look into audit reports for the past three financial years with among queries topping the agenda being the Sh24 billion operating loss posted in 2020.
PIC also seeks to review illegal allocation of land citing nine industrial plots within Limuru Railway Station, three in Kikuyu and parcels adjacent to the Mombasa Railway station.
The parcels, including 529 others across the country, in question have been allocated to third parties with some already developed.
A Sh3 billion variance in freight revenue from the Standard Gauge Railway is also lined up for the probe after the auditor cast doubt on Sh14 billion Kenya Railways reported as its income for the year.
The Pkosing-led committee is also seeking to probe unsupported land compensation payments by the Kenya Railways Corporation.
About Sh1 billion was not backed up with details of beneficiaries, their ID card, PIN certificates and title deed surrenders from the National Land Commission. An overpayment of Sh8.9 million is also due for the probe.
At KRA, MPs have lined up probes into an outstanding Sh1.5 trillion revenue and uncollected rental income from various rental properties owned by the taxman.
At Lake Basin, PIC seeks to probe the use of loan proceeds on activities which were not related to debt payment for the mall as well as lands without ownership documents.
ICTA faces probe on queries arising from the national optic fibre backbone infrastructure project where the agency did not provide reasons for excluding the loan from accounting records.
Also to be probed are queries bordering on the digital literacy programme, amid concerns taxpayers have not obtained value for money in the venture.
Among the queries is Sh603 million which was spent on defective laptops, which were never replaced as at the time of the audit.
For Kenya Power, the last audit report to be reviewed by Parliament was for the financial year 2016-17 but the entity has been audited for the successive years up to June 30, 2022.
Documents seen by Star reveal that the committee would focus on the material uncertainty at the power distributor, amid concerns the power company has recorded a negative working capital five consecutive years.
MPs are preliminarily concerned that the management has not achieve any meaningful results from the initiatives undertaken to turn around the utility to profitability.
The lawmakers have also prioritised a review into the high capacity charge on power purchase agreements, which is blamed for costly electricity in the country.
This stems from the argument that the charges account for 52 per cent of the total cost of sales and are fixed, thus adversely affecting the company’s performance.
The House team said that the management is slow in having the contracts renegotiated downwards and align the dates of the power purchase agreements in line with its medium term power demand to avoid excess power generation.
“Until these strategies are implemented, the company will continue bearing the high fixed capacity charges,” the committee said.
PIC is also scheduled to probe why it costs Kenya Power Sh5.3 per KWh to buy power from KenGen while it costs the company an average Sh15.5 per KWh from other Independent Power Producers.
Of concern for the watchdog team is that some IPPs supplied power for as high as Sh195 per KWh while the same was sold at an average of Sh15.6 per KWh.
MPs further seek to probe power losses in the system which they said has been persistent for the past four financial years.
Also to be probed are the challenges with implementation of the last mile connectivity project, citing a number of weaknesses and governance lapses.