Resign? Not me, says Waiguru

Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of resigning over claims of widespread corruption in her ministry.

Ms Waiguru, who has been widely attacked, said she intends to continue discharging her duties diligently “as I have always done for as long as I am given the trust to do so”. 

She faced MPs and protested her innocence and rejected some of the criticism as “calculated evil, vindictive and ill intentioned” in an earlier statement.

She also rejected calls to take responsibility for the corruption in her ministry, arguing that it was not her fault since she was not involved in accounting.

Appearing before MPs, she also said she was not aware of a report that listed a litany of what MPs called inflated expenses in departments under her ministry, proclaiming that she was not involved in procurement.

INFLATED EXPENSES

In a heated, three-hour session, she told the Public Accounts Committee that she had not seen the report tabled before the committee by one of the Principal secretaries in charge of planning at the ministry, Mr Peter Mangiti, who also attended the session.

“I can confirm that I’ve not seen it. I only learnt of the report through 411 and reports in the media,” she told the committee, chaired by Rarieda MP Nicolas Gumbo.

The CS maintained that she was not aware of an integrated monitoring touch screen in her office costing Sh1.798 million and a Yamaha piano worth Sh235,500, also in her office.

“I want to talk about things which were said to be in my office, and I want to say that I don’t have a piano and a screen.”

BOARDROOM TOUCH SCREEN

She later admitted knowledge of the touch screen after Mr Mangiti pointed out that it was in the minister’s boardroom and not in her office.

“I don’t even know how to use it because Cabinet secretaries don’t make presentations,” she said.

“I can’t tell even how much the chair in my office costs, not even a biro,” she went on.

She, however, stated that she was ready to take action if there is evidence of corruption in the ministry.

ACCOUNTABLE OFFICERS

Under a barrage of questions from the MPs regarding the report, Ms Waiguru maintained that principal secretaries were responsible for all accounting matters in their ministries and that they reported directly to the Cabinet secretary in charge of the Treasury on such matters.

Last December, President Uhuru Kenyatta transferred some executive powers from principal secretaries to Cabinet secretaries.

In the move, CSs were given greater oversight over procurement in ministries, departments, parastatals and State-controlled firms, formerly the preserve of PSs.

New duties included approving work, procurement and cash-flow plans, previously performed by principal secretaries.

Cabinet secretaries were also given the authority to make decisions on hiring, promotions, career progression, discipline and exit for officers to job group “P” and below, currently undertaken by PSs in consultation with the Public Service Commission.

DEADLINE

On Wednesday, Ms Waiguru asked that the committee formally invite her to a meeting and detail the issues they want her to respond to.

“I would want more time to respond to the issues because I’ve not even seen the report. The invitation should clearly state the issues that have been raised,” she said.

The committee gave her two weeks to appear before it with all the relevant documents.

WAIGURU’S FACEBOOK STATEMENT

Earlier in the day, Ms Waiguru took to Facebook and Twitter to defend herself, saying she was neither the ministry’s accounting officer nor the holder of the "authority to incur expenditure" (AIE).

She also maintained that there was no television worth Sh1.798 million as revealed in the documents shown to the MPs on Tuesday.

“And for the record, I have no such TV screen or piano in my office. God bless Kenya,” she said.

The CS accused her critics of deliberately refusing to appreciate the role of a Cabinet secretary and that of accounting officers and AIE holders in government ministries and departments.

“The last three months have witnessed incessant media attacks on my character on the issue of corruption in the Ministry of Devolution and its agencies including the NYS,” he wrote.

“What is shocking is the deliberate refusal to recognise my role as CS and that of officers who are either accounting officers or AIE holders in Govt Depts. Both by law and in practice, I do not procure. I do not purchase anything for the ministry. I don’t sign or negotiate contracts,” she said.

Responding to queries from the MPs during the afternoon meeting, Ms Waiguru said Cabinet secretaries were only responsible for strategic leadership and policy direction in ministries and departments under them.

Asked whether it concerned her that her ministry had been repeatedly linked to corruption, she responded: “Immensely … Perhaps our enthusiasm to be transparent has been our undoing. Maybe we should have kept quiet because you wouldn’t have known.”