Parliament is not the only weak link in stopping the loot in parastatals and government institutions, Saboti Member of Parliament Caleb Amisi has said. This is after criticism emerged accusing the legislature of doing very little to hold government officials implicated in the Auditor General's reports accountable.
While speaking during an appearance on Citizen TV, Amisi explained that the timing of the reports leaves Parliament with just three months before heading for recess, often giving parliamentary audit committees little to no time to properly act on the reports and look into cases of graft or mismanagement in such public bodies.
Further, the lawmaker, a member of the Public Investments Committee (PIC), cited the high number of parastatals, which he put at around 200, as another stumbling block, noting that this, coupled with the little time the committees had, made it an exercise in futility.
“Audits are conducted three months after the close of the financial year. With 200 parastatals, how can Parliament realistically review all their audited accounts within that period?” Amisi quipped.
“Moreover, Parliament goes on recess from December to February, meaning that effectively, the reviews can only take place from March when it is back in session,” he added.
Critically, however, Amisi disclosed that even when such committees were able to address issues raised and submit their own reports to the relevant authorities, delayed action from such investigative agencies led to such cases being overlooked or not getting the light of day.
“When the Committee of Implementation submits its report, who is supposed to take it up? The DCI or EACC. So is EACC going to look at these hundreds of cases brought to it? And that is where the problem of implementation of AG reports lies,” he said.
Amisi added that this created a huge backlog spanning several years, noting that people had taken advantage of the disconnect and continued to loot public resources.
To fix the issue, Amisi proposed a review of the legislation around the implementation of the reports to ensure that due diligence is done by MPs and the relevant authorities.
“We must solve this problem via legislation, because currently, looking at how the current legislation is designed and how Parliament is supposed to go about it, it is not feasible,” he stated.
His revelation comes after a recent report by the Auditor General revealed that Kenyans had irregularly paid over Ksh2.1 billion through the Ksh50 transaction fee charged to access government services through the Government Digital Payments Platform (eCitizen).
According to the Special Report on eCitizen published in March, the government unlawfully upcharged the transaction fees contrary to directives issued in Gazette Notice No. 9290/2014 dated December 23, 2014.
Also, the release of the County Governments Budget Implementation Review report by the COB for the 2024/2025 Financial Year has already exposed glaring irregularities, particularly in Nairobi.
