Parliament is today set to begin an inquiry into the disbursement of Sh6 billion to Telkom Kenya to facilitate the exit of Helios Investment Partners.

The departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning in particular seeks to establish if the law was followed in the disbursement of the money under Article 223 of the Constitution.

Committee chair Kimani Kuria (Molo MP), recently recommended to the House the disapproval of the disbursement which happened in August, but whose approval was sought in January this year.

Kuria said the implication of the recommendation which was carried by the House, is that the disbursement remains unapproved, hence the need for the committee to conduct the probe to ascertain if there was loss of taxpayers money through the transaction.

The approvals

“We will also interrogate how the money was shared and who were the beneficiaries of the money which was deposited in an account in Mauritius,” Kuria added.

Article 223 of the Constitution allows the National Government to spend money that has not been appropriated if the amount allocated for any purpose under the Appropriations Act is insufficient or a need has arisen for expenditure.

The approval for any spending under this Article should, however, be sought within two months after the first withdrawal of the money.

If the House is not scheduled for sitting as the case with this transaction, the approval is to be sought within two weeks after it sits next.

The committee will seek to ascertain how the disbursement was approved, effected, used, and whether the necessary conditions for such disbursement as provided under the Article and subsidiary laws were followed.