Wafula Chebukati Responds to Auditor General's Report on Misuse of Funds

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman, Wafula Chebukati, on Wednesday seemingly blamed the Chief Executive Officer CEO, Ezra Chiloba, over the Auditor General report which revealed that the Commission had inflated figures on tenders.

When questioned on the report released by Auditor General Edward Ouko, the IEBC boss noted that the matter rests with Chiloba, who is the accounting officer.

He further stated that just like after the nullified August 8 election, the report appeared to lay blame on Chiloba accusing him of the audit queries.

The report revealed that IEBC had illegally altered and varied a contract amount from Sh31.7 Million quoted by the same vendor in 2012 to Sh93.3 Million.

[caption caption="IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati and CEO Chiloba (Facebook)"][/caption]

The report further revealed that taxpayers lost approximately Sh26.6 Million in the buying of goods, which were termed by IEBC as specialized materials, for use in mass voter registration.

In the report, Mr Ouko also divulged that the agency paid lawyers involved in 2013 election petitions Sh2.1 Billion instead of Sh1 Billion.

The discrepancy was discovered when legal fees as at June 2013 showed Sh1.05 Billion but the records showed that the commission paid, Sh2.2 Billion to the advocates.

Also, a mystery is how five law firms that were not pre-qualified to represent IEBC were paid, Sh17.8 Million.

The electoral body officials have been summoned by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to explain the irregularities in the report.

[caption caption="IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati addressing journalists (Facebook)"][/caption]

Chair of the committee, Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi, also wants the agency to justify the inflated cost of biometric voter registration (BVR) kits.

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