Kimunya, Ndung'u survive House censure over De La Rue saga

CBK Governor Njuguna Ndung’u (left) and Transport minister Amos Kimunya (right). The two have survived censure in Parliament after MPs threw out a watchdog team report that had indicted them over a Sh1.8 billion loss in a controversial money-printing contract September 4, 2012

What you need to know:

  • MPs alter PAC report to absolve Mr Kimunya and Prof Ndung’u of any wrongdoing.

  • Kimunya: Auditor General's report that the Public Accounts Committee relied on was drawn out of ignorance.

Transport minister Amos Kimunya and Central Bank Governor Njuguna Ndung’u survived censure in Parliament after MPs threw out a watchdog team report that had indicted them over a Sh1.8 billion loss in a controversial money-printing contract.

The MPs first altered the report to absolve Mr Kimunya and Prof Ndung’u of any wrongdoing and then rejected the report in the debate presided over by temporary Deputy Speaker Prof Philip Kaloki.

Two nominated MPs, Rachel Shebesh and Amina Abdalla, spearheaded the move to have Mr Kimunya and Prof Ndung’u saved, with a call to have all the hostile paragraphs against the two deleted.

The two MPs said the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) could not recommend that Mr Kimunya and Prof Ndung’u should not hold public office and at the same time recommend that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission should investigate them. That, they said, was wrong.

They said the targeting of Mr Kimunya and Prof Ndung’u had to do with politics.

"We have entered a political stage on this country with the next elections around the corner. We massage the truth. When you see the name Anyang’ Nyong’o and the name Kimunya (adversely mentioned in reports of House committees) you have to investigate the political intrigues behind them.

"These intrigues will continue. Let Amos Kimunya go home because the EACC has said; but let it not be that if you cannot deal with Kimunya politically, then you kick him out of office through this House,” said Ms Shebesh.

"With all due respect to the committee, we cannot give the work to the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission as we investigate the two and then quickly follow with the recommendation that they should not hold public office,” said Ms Shebesh.

Collateral damage

Ms Amina Abdalla said that Prof Ndung’u was “collateral damage” because of politics.

“Mr Kimunya is a very unpopular member of this House. He’s an extremely rigid member of this House. He’s my friend abut he’s very rigid and difficult. So when you lump his name with some issues, it’s the shortest way to have the issues rejected,” said Ms Abdalla said.

"When you have other issues clouding a report, it’s so easy to lump perception with the actual issues. I don’t know if he’s innocent; I’ll only know that after the EACC has concluded its job,” Ms Abdalla said.

Mr Kimunya also got support from assistant minister Manson Nyamweya and Public Service minister Dalmas Otieno to ensure that Parliament disagreed with the PAC’s recommendations.

"You’re treating it as if it was an actual loss, yet it is a computed loss. You’re claiming there’s a loss when there was no loss,” said Mr Otieno.

With the deletion, MPs overwhelmingly opposed the report and called that it be thrown out.

"Now that I see that the government has mobilised to kill this report, why don’t you save us time, and stress and just call for the mover to reply,” lamented John Mbadi (Gwassi).

But it emerged that the file of Dr Abdi Nuh regarding the controversy was lost from within parliament records. Dr Nuh said he’d done calculations and that “Kenyans must know that money was lost” and even the Auditor General was convinced of the loss.

“History will judge us right,” said Dr Nuh.

Dr Boni Khalwale (Ikolomani), who is the chairman of the PAC, said the committee had come with the answers, yet MPs had come to reject the report.

Mr Kimunya put up a spirited defence to ward off the allegations against him and the Central Bank Governor Njuguna Ndung’u, to quit office over the Sh1.8 billion loss in a money-printing contract.

Ignorance

The minister, who was Finance minister at the time, said “there was no loss” and that the report of the Auditor General that the Public Accounts Committee had relied on was drawn out of ignorance.

“Had the Auditor General looked at all these information, and at the Cabinet papers, which contain all the information;  had he called me, then we’d have had a detailed discussion on this matter, gone through all the numbers, then he’d not have given the impression, that triggered the committee to make those recommendations,” said Mr Kimunya.

The Transport minister said that unless MPs wanted to “to get into the trap where the Auditor General is comparing five-year production with three-year cost commitment, which is basically comparing oranges and apples”, then, there was no loss.

But Charles Onyancha told off Mr Kimunya “government policy that promotes loss of fund should be challenged at all times.”

“Some of us are much more senior accountants than some of the members of this House. The Maltese quotation for a fifty-shilling note was 12 pounds, while we’re buying from Ruaraka at 25 pounds, which is more than double the price. Does it make sense to pay double the price for something which is of a cheaper quality? It does not make sense!” said Mr Onyancha.

The Bonchari MP added: “To come here and tell us that there was no loss incurred, is misleading the House. Cabinet approved the joint venture. Cabinet did not approve the usurping of the powers of the Central Bank to order bank notes.”

On the joint venture for a money-printing firm between The Treasury and De La Rue, Mr Onyancha said: “I don’t know which investor puts in money when there’s no due diligence. Machinery, naturally amortises itself.”