Brand Kenya Board, a state corporation mandated with creating, marketing, and maintaining the Kenyan brand, has revealed that former CEO Mary Luseka was fired for embezzling funds through inflated tenders.
In response to the Board’s decision, the former CEO has filed a suit at the Employment and Labour Relations Court on the grounds that her contract was unfairly terminated. Ms Luseka now wants to get her job back.
Funds Embezzlement
According to an affidavit sworn by the Board’s director of finance Geoffrey Shimanyula, Ms Luseka inflated a contract worth Sh4 million to Sh83 million and awarded it to a company that was not qualified to handle the job.
Mr Shimanyula stated the former chief executive awarded a tender of Sh10 million to Media Edge Interactive Limited when the lowest cost of the tender was about Sh4 million.
“Even after irregularly awarding the tender for Sh10.4 million, she miraculously went ahead to vary that award and increase it to Sh83.5 million. She then rushed to make advance payments to the company while aware that they had no technical staff to do the job,” he said adding that Ms Luseka irregularly approved another Sh3 million as charges for staff production and Sh.6 million for equipment not mentioned in the tenders she awarded.
The Brand Kenya Board could now lose Sh500 million which was to fund the Kenya Achievement Campaign after the ex-CEO misused a similar amount allocated in the 2016/2017 budget.
“Her allegation that it is the board that misused the money is a red herring intended to mislead the court towards a conclusion that the board interfered with procurement issues when she was the one solely responsible as the accounting officer,” said Shimanyula.
False Academic Qualifications
It has also emerged that Ms Luseka’s academic qualifications were falsified that she did not meet the minimum qualifications to hold her former position. Ms Luseka was appointed as CEO of the Board in 2016.
“She represented to the board that she had a Masters Degree in Business Administration at the time she was appointed in October 2016 but it has now emerged that she had no such qualifications and did not meet the minimum qualifications for the job,” said Shimanyula.
According to Shimanyula, Ms Luseka was often summoned by the Board of Directors to explain the aforementioned accusations including the improper treatment of staff prior to her firing.
The case will be heard on July 4, 2018.
