The directors of an Italian firm have recorded a statement with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in connection with the allegations of three Cabinet secretaries for receiving kickbacks from contractors engaged in State projects.
According to sources, the three were in a group of Government officials that flew to Rome, Italy, to receive kickbacks from a contractor who was controversially paid Sh7 billion.
“Some of you contractors pay tickets for Government officers to travel to European capitals to receive the kickbacks and we know,” said one of the top officials, according to a person present at the meeting.
A source explained that the official cited a case where a State agency paid a contractor Sh7 billion in advance, yet the process of acquiring the land for the project had not been concluded.
Contractors and senior State officials have come under investigation over a growing trend where hefty bribes are paid out, mostly in foreign capitals, to influence peddlers.
Powerful individuals, including members of the Cabinet, principal secretaries and parastatal chiefs mainly handling key infrastructural projects, are said be involved.
Over 500 contractors attended the meeting in which the Government warned foreign contractors that they would be jailed or deported for bribing public officers.
The money involved is normally from projects funded by international donors and financiers, where crooked public officers facilitate advance payments (mobilisation fee) that are then wired back home.