A Sh2.3 billion ($230 million) scandal is festering at Kenya’s National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).
An audit report tabled in Parliament has revealed that NCPB cannot account for Sh2.3 billion realised from the sale of different types of fertilisers.
The report by the outgoing Auditor General Edward Ouko for the financial year ended June 30, 2018 indicates that the produce board could not account for Sh2.3 billion realised from the sale of 2,303,235 million bags of fertiliser.
“No evidence was provided to show that the State department carried out any reconciliations for sales made and quantity delivered by or outstanding from each of the suppliers as at June 30,2018,” reads the audit report.
During the year under review, NCPB sold fertilisers to farmers at subsidised prices of Sh1,500 ($15) for a 50kg bag of all planting fertilisers like DAP and NPK blends and all top dressing fertilisers such as CAN, UREA and Sh1,300 ($13) for a 50kg bag of Sulphate Ammonia.
Records provided to auditors indicate that 1,200,000 bags of DAP, 1,014,000 bags of CAN, 100,000 bags of NPK, 50,000 bags of blend four and 24,000 of blend nine fertilisers were distributed to various counties for both the short rains in October 2017 and long rains in February 2018.
The auditor however revealed in his report that an additional suspicious 200,000 bags of DAP fertiliser were introduced into the system, and in addition it is also not clear how 100,000 bags of NPK, 50,000 bags of blend four and 24,000 bags of blend nine were distributed.
According to the report, NCPB failed to bank all revenue realised from the sale of local blends of fertiliser that were procured by the State department of Agriculture to Kenya Commercial Bank for onward transmission to the statement department’s account at the Central Bank of Kenya.
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