BASEL: A Swiss firm awarded the Sh17.7 billion excise tax system says it has not employed any Kenyan related to a Kenya Revenue Authority staff in their offices abroad.
SICPA Security Solutions said it has a clear corporate code of conduct and recruitment policies that prevent it from known conflicts of interest. “SICPA has a clear corporate code of conduct and strong HR and recruitment policies which preclude known conflicts of interest and which promote equal opportunities based on competence,” the firm said in a statement. The firm was responding to allegations that it had employed a Kenyan in one of its offices abroad who is related to a KRA official. The company said it does not have Kenyan employees out of Kenya. However, SICPA Kenya, a subsidiary of Switzerland- based SICPA Security Solutions has 70 Kenyan employees locally. Parliament’s Public Investments Committee (PIC) is currently investigating the contract and has ordered that the system be suspended until investigations are complete. SICPA initially signed the contract in December 2012 at a cost that was later renegotiated.
The original contract was for making excise stamps for tobacco products, wines and spirits but the Treasury, through a Legal Notice number 110 of June 2013 increased the scope to cover beer, bottled water and soft drinks. The five-year contract worth Euros 20,341,464 was originally to provide 3.55 billion stamps a year but this was later reviewed to Euros 158,213,898 (Sh17.7 billion at current exchange rates) for 12.87 billion stamps.
