Attempts to muzzle auditor puts in question commitment to fight graft

Auditor General Edward Ouko (right) and Parliamentary Budget Committee chairman Mutava Musyimi during the meeting with members of Social Economic Audit of the Constitution at Bomas Hotel Nairobi on May 19, 2015. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Although both the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission have declared a verdict of not guilty on the Eurobond saga, I do not see this matter dying out soon.
  • If you want to get all the facts and to the bottom of the matter, you must download all the materials, namely bank statements from the two foreign banks that kept the money, money transfer instructions from the National Treasury, and swift bank statements documenting wire transfer activity.
  • Secondly, make sure you have the bundle of documents which Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich attached to a statement he tabled before the Public Accounts Committee. You have a complex web of transactions.

Although both the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission have declared a verdict of not guilty on the Eurobond saga, I do not see this matter dying out soon.

If you want to get all the facts and to the bottom of the matter, you must download all the materials, namely bank statements from the two foreign banks that kept the money, money transfer instructions from the National Treasury, and swift bank statements documenting wire transfer activity.

Secondly, make sure you have the bundle of documents which Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich attached to a statement he tabled before the Public Accounts Committee. You have a complex web of transactions.

The second reason I do not see this matter going away soon are reports in the media of a plot to replace the Auditor-General, Mr Edward Ouko, over the Eurobond issue.

Indeed, it is intriguing that the publication of the report of the Auditor-General for the year ended June 2015, which is supposed to give the last word on important aspects of the Eurobond controversy, has been inordinately delayed. The constitutional deadline for the tabling of this report is six months of the fiscal year end.

CHANGE THE NARRATIVE

While I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the reports about a plot to remove him from office, what I know for sure is that Mr Ouko is in no position to change the narrative to fit what the National Treasury wants even if he is threatened with the sack.

And I am not suggesting that this is because Mr Ouko is a principled man who cannot bend to the powers that be. The truth of the matter is that with the Controller of Budget having published a report documenting all the movements in the Consolidated Fund for the fiscal year 2014/2015, Mr Ouko’s hands are tied.

He cannot possibly change the facts documented in the Controller of Budget’s official report to Parliament. As an auditor, your job is not to make accounting entries in the books but to express your opinion on the accounts and financial statements presented to you.

If Mr Ouko is being pressured on the Eurobond matter, then the powers that be are frying the wrong person.

Beyond giving press statements, the National Treasury’s hands are also tied because, as auditors and accountants will tell you, it cannot do what they call in their parlance “prior period adjustment” because they do not do accrual accounting. Indeed, we still use the same vote-book the colonial government bequeathed to us many years ago, save for the fact that it has since been computerised.

Which brings me to current attempts to muzzle the Office of the Auditor-General by amending the Public Audit Act. The government shoots itself in the foot by claiming to be committed to fighting corruption while at the same time trying to muzzle such offices as this one.

POLE POSITION

This office occupies a pole position when it comes to the architecture of the critical institutions that make up our integrity system. What the government is trying to do amounts to bad politics. What will save this country from bad politics?

If you track our recent political history, you will be surprised at how corruption networks have survived in different regimes. In this country and many others in Africa, grand corruption and political patronage are what lubricate politics. It follows an all too familiar pattern: Outsiders who have just won elections romp to State House, promising accountable government, economic reform, and better infrastructure.

Two years later, newspapers will be reporting new corruption within the new administration. Five years later, another coalition will have been formed to throw out the incumbents. And so the cycle repeats itself.

The problem with this endless and repetitious game is that it makes it easy for the incumbents to fudge responsibility and shield themselves from corruption allegations.

One politician accuses another of corruption and the opponent replies with the allegation that the nemesis also practised corruption when his coalition was in power. In this way, it is all reduced to a matter of who between the warring parties is able to shout the loudest.

The problem is that when you end up in a situation where both the incumbents and outsiders have corrupt elements, it is very easy to fudge responsibility.