Parliament halts approval of IEBC's Sh45bn budget
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Vice Chair Lilian Mahiri-Zaja before the National Assembly Committee on Implementation of House Resolutions on April 26, 2016. She told the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee on May 12, 2016 that the electoral commission had disputed the findings of Public Accounts Committee. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The Justice and Legal Affairs Committee had summoned IEBC officials, led by Chairman Issack Hassan, over alleged corruption involving procurement of electronic equipment for the 2013 elections.
- She said the letter of invitation dated May 9 had only landed at the IEBC desk on Wednesday evening, making it difficult for the officers to honour the summonses at short notice.
The demand by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission for Sh45 billion to conduct next year’s General Election was Thursday questioned in Parliament over integrity issues facing IEBC officials.
The Justice and Legal Affairs Committee had summoned IEBC officials, led by Chairman Issack Hassan, over alleged corruption involving procurement of electronic equipment for the 2013 elections.
Commissioners Mohammed Alawi and Thomas Letangule, as well as CEO Ezra Chiloba, were also summoned.
“We need you to clear integrity issues raised by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) regarding procurement irregularities for the biometric voter registration (BVR) kits before we can approve your budget for the Financial Year 2016/17,” said committee Chairman Samuel Chepkong’a.
However, the team was given until Tuesday to have the said officials appear before the committee to answer questions of influencing the award of the BVR tender and irregular payments amounting to Sh258 million to an Indian supplier.
Mr Chiloba and Vice-Chairperson Lilian Mahiri-Zaja were the only top officials at the meeting, with MPs ruling that the meeting be adjourned until the officers who had been found to be individually culpable in the irregularities appear before the team.
Ms Mahiri-Zaja said Mr Hassan and the two commissioners had other engagements and so they could not attend.
She said the letter of invitation dated May 9 had only landed at the IEBC desk on Wednesday evening, making it difficult for the officers to honour the summonses at short notice.
She also told the committee that the electoral commission had disputed the findings of PAC, whose special audit, prepared by the Auditor-General, found massive irregularities in procurement of the BVR kits that led to loss of Sh4 billion in taxpayers’ funds.
“We do not agree with most of the findings of the PAC, which we find full of misrepresentation of facts, and that is why we are asking for more time to respond to them adequately,” said Ms Mahiri-Zaja.
