Trouble seems to be following Manchester Outfitters and it’s CEO Pravin Galot as the Kenya police, Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission have trained their guns on them following an expose that the company was illegally paid millions of shillings by the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA). In a scheme hatched by Pravin Galot, the company he wrestled from his family, Manchester Outfitters locally manufactured staff uniforms and overalls but declared the items as imported from Canada, a scandal that the Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu has flagged.
This comes in the wake of military uniform scandal where Pravin made excess Kenya Army uniforms and then sold the remaining to private citizens after adding UDA logo to the uniforms. This was revealed by Westlands MP aspirant Nelson Havi in the screen shot of his Twitter account in the picture below.
The KPA procured the alleged Canada-imported overalls at an inflated cost of Sh6,475 when locally made ones were priced at Sh2,325, nearly three times more.
“Physical verification of the items revealed that the overalls received had a local manufacturer’s label. Further, importation documents (Import Declaration Forms) to confirm that the high visibility overalls were from Canada were not availed for audit review,” she said.
The MPs found that the KPA overpaid the Manchester Outfitters by Sh30,129,000 for the overalls.
The KPA bought 7,260 the overalls costing Sh47,008,500 at a unit cost of Sh6,475.
The agency spent a total of Sh354,579,000 in respect of uniforms and clothing, out of which Sh86,029,240 was in respect of uniforms and staff protective equipment.
The committee asked the EACC to investigate Pravin Galot, Manchester Outfitters and KPA over the expenditure of Sh49.9 million for the supply of high visibility staff uniforms and overalls that were allegedly procured from Canada.
PIC said the award letter indicated a unit cost of Canada-imported overalls was Sh6,475 while locally made aprons were priced at Sh2,325 or a total of Sh16,879,500 for 7,260 overalls.
In its findings, the committee said the KPA spent Sh49,871,496 for the supply of overalls said to have been bought from Canada.
Pravin is also neck deep into a case where he is accused of forging documents to take over a family company. Yesterday, he was also caught in court before a three bench judge testifying with pre prepared questions and answers. Court officials confiscated the and cited him for contempt of court.
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