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The Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning has defended the involvement of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) for digitisation of land registries in the country.
The NIS was paid Sh73 million by the ministry to undertake the job which is properly funded by the taxpayer.
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly yesterday, Lands and Physical Planning Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri said that they made it a security issue because their land management system was critical.
“We collaborated with NIS to ensure mistakes of the past are cleared,” said Muraguri.
On June 28,2019, the amount was received from the ICT ministry and was credited to the deposit account at the Lands ministry and later paid to the agency on August 2, 2019 for the job.
However, Muraguri did not explain why the funds were not paid directly to NIS by the ICT ministry.
The committee chaired by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi and Wilberforce Oundo (Funyula) demanded more explanations on why the ministry required the services of the NIS yet it has competent staff employed and paid to do the job.
“Why would NIS draw money from the exchequer to do a job other people have been employed to do? Please tell us what is going on,” Wandayi demanded.
Additionally, Oundo, expressed his shock to learn that the ministry spent millions of shillings on NIS yet Muraguri was not clear as to why the expenditure was necessary.
Muraguri noted that the government’s efforts to develop a credible land management system since 2003 have not been successful hence incorporating the agency for security reasons.
The multi-agency team included the other arms of government in the security sector, the ICT sector and the office of the Attorney-General.
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