New Bill bars release of Auditor-General’s dossier on security

The Auditor-General will no longer be able to make public audit reports touching on security organs if a new Bill to be introduced in Parliament becomes law in 2015.

The Public Audit Bill 2014, which could be debated as early as February when Parliament resumes sessions, is meant to avoid queries such as those that arose when officials in the Office of the President were asked to account for the transfer of Sh8.3 billion into and out of the government’s security accounts.

“For the purposes of auditing under this section, the Auditor-General shall report on any unauthorised, irregular and wasteful expenditures, but the report shall not contain information on any classified activity by the National Security organs,” reads section 40 (3) of the Bill.

The law will chiefly affect the National Police Service, the National Intelligence Service, the Kenya Defence Forces and any other national security organ in what critics will likely interpret as seeking to introduce opaqueness in the security apparatus.

Among the reasons the Auditor-General will be barred from making public such reports include, to protect the identities of individuals who are paid after providing crucial information that leads to arrest of criminals or terrorists. “Such people risk their lives to give such information. Do you now intend to make public how much we paid them and who they were? That is like reading them their death sentence,” a highly-placed source at the OP said.

CONFIDENTIAL ACCOUNTS

For instance, our source told us, an individual was recently paid huge sums of money for providing a crucial link that led to the arrest of a terror suspect in Nairobi. The amount paid out, according to our source, is from confidential accounts which the government wants classified.

With the probability of enactment being high, since it is a government-sponsored Bill, the law will add on to the raging controversy and public uproar over the passing of the Security Laws (Amendment) Bill 2014, which has been branded draconian by the opposition, civil society and the media.

“The Auditor-General shall designate public officers in his office to audit national security organs,” it reads. It adds that those auditors will first have to be subjected to a vetting process. But it is silent on who will conduct the exercise.

Currently, auditors insist on an item-by-item account when auditing records in security organs, an approach some senior officials in government said can mean exposing information they would rather handle as “top secret”.

RAISE ALARM

During the 2013 General Election, large transactions from the government’s secret accounts took place, which made the Auditor-General raise alarm in his report. According to a report by the Auditor-General, the withdrawals and another of Sh2 billion had not been accounted for.

“During the year under review, the ministry transferred a total of Sh8.3 billion to the Kenya Police Service through contra-entries on cashbook and ministry headquarters’ recurrent bank account, amounting to Sh1.4 billion and Sh6.9 billion respectively.

“On March 14, 2013 alone, Sh2 billion was transferred through account number 0-101-000-6530101 through voucher number 272 under the account name Police Commissioner, which was closed in December 2012,” said the report. The man who found himself in the crossfire was Interior Principal Secretary Mutea Iringo (now Defence PS). In August, a group of opposition MPs demanded the sacking and prosecution of Mr Iringo over the transfer of the Sh8.3.

But Mr Iringo, through a spokesperson, said the account for the Police Commissioner used for the deals remained active until the close of the 2013/14 financial year.

Other than monies appropriated by Parliament, the Bill lists assets accrued to the Auditor-General’s office, audit fees, investments and donations as sources of income for the department that has constantly accused both the national and county governments of misappropriating funds.