THE HEARING OF CASE IN WHICH FORMER SONYSUGAR BOSS IS FACING A CHARGE OF ABUSE OF OFFICE AND CORRUPTION IS ADJOURNED BY A KISUMU COURT.
Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
The hearing of abuse of office criminal case against the former SONYSUGAR Managing Director, Ambrose James Otieno, was adjourned here for the case to be mentioned again on December 15,2009.
The adjournment came abruptly when all the prosecution witnesses were present and ready to continue giving their evidences to the court.
The case is before Mrs Anna Ong’onjo, who is the Senior Principal Magistrate, in charge of Anti Corruption at the Kisumu law court. The prosecution is led by Miss Mary Oundo, while Otieno is represented by a Kisumu lawyer, David Otieno of Ragot and Otieno Advocates Company.
The adjournment application was made by the prosecutor State Counsel, Miss Mary Oundo, who had asked the court for time to consult the office of the Attorney General for fresh instruction and direction.
Otieno is facing a charge that on diverse dates, between February 2004 and July 2004, at Awendo Sare in Migori district, being a person whose functions concerned the management of public revenue, as the Managing Director of SONSUGAR, he willfully failed to comply with applicable procedures and guidelines relating to procurement, by failing to disclose to the SONYSUGAR Tender Committee, the letter of guidelines, issued by the Acting director of public procurement, contained in his letter of February 27 2004 to the officials.
He proceeded with procurement of a secondhand grader tractor from the Associated Equipment Company Limited of South Africa{PTY}, as if it was the only source of grader, occasioning a loss of 100,000 South African rand to another firm, called MutanaTrading Company {PTY} Limited, for freight charges for shipment of a grader from South Africa to Kenya. But the grader was never supplied to SONYSUGAR.
The new development came about after the defending lawyer, Mr Otieno, had pinned down one of the prosecution witnesses during cross examination, during the previous hearing in October, only for the witness to admit that some important document were tempered with.
The witness, Peter Odhiambo, had told the court in his evidence that the former Managing Director, had tried to source the tractor grader single handedly, without informing other managers and even without consulting the company tender committee.
But the defending lawyer, Otieno, producer the same copy of the letter written by the Acting Public Procurement officer, Mr Kenneth Murunga, in February 2004. The letter was a guideline to SONYSUGAR, and it authorized the accused former managing director to proceed with the purchase of the grader after consulting all other relevant authorities, including heads of departments.
Otieno had shown Odhiambo, who is the purchasing manager of the SONYSUGAR, a copy of the same letter, which the former managing director had circulated to all the relevant managerial team in the company, including Odhiambo himself, who had duly signed it. Odhiambo accepted having seen and signed the letter. But his signature had been erased in the face, on the copy of the same letter for prosecution evidence. Documents from SONYSUGAR had been tempered with.
It also became clear that the company minutes of a meeting held on March 30, 2004, at which the guideline document from the Public Procurement officer was discussed exhaustively, were also missing. The witness, Odhiambo, was the one who was supposed to be the custodian of all the relevant documents.
The hearing resumes on December 15. Odhiambo’s evidence was stood over for further re-cross examination by both the Prosecution and the defense lawyer.
Ends