Every shilling counts, must be counted as we tackle Covid-19
What you need to know:
This is the ultimate fight for life, and juxtaposed against it is the war on corruption; it’s as urgent as the need to save lives.
There is a high risk of corruption in emergency response efforts. With public attention diverted to ensure that aid is accorded to those in need, vigilance is at its lowest.
- Every shilling saved from their talons will make a huge difference in addressing the emergency and amplify measures to flatten the curve and save precious lives.
Kenya’s economic situation was already gloomy before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The crisis will push us further against the wall, and we risk tipping over. How we respond to this crisis, particularly in ensuring accountability for funds allocated to response efforts, will determine how we recover from it and sustain the country beyond it.
This is the ultimate fight for life, and juxtaposed against it is the war on corruption; it’s as urgent as the need to save lives. There is a high risk of corruption in emergency response efforts. With public attention diverted to ensure that aid is accorded to those in need, vigilance is at its lowest.
The corrupt thrive in such situations and will take advantage of the emergency for self-aggrandisement. Corruption in such response efforts is the most egregious as it deprives the vulnerable of essential life-saving resources. We need all hands on deck to ensure that the necessary transparency and accountability measures underlie response efforts.
All decisions and actions towards responding to this crisis must be responsive to the country’s values and principles of governance as enshrined in the Constitution as well as other accountability measures spelt out in policies and enabling legislations.
For starters, the government should guarantee adequate access to and flow of accurate and verifiable information.
This should be published proactively and made available in the different languages understood by Kenyans, and through media and format that is easily understood and accessed. That will help the citizenry to make informed decisions to protect themselves and cooperate and participate in the response efforts.
A public information portal on Covid-19 is paramount. It should include the number of infections, affected geographical locations and emergency response units and their activities across the country. Other information is on resource allocation and expenditure, including donations, and other pertinent information as per the constitutional guarantee on access to information.
Unfortunately, this situation finds Kenya without regulations to give effect to the access to information law enacted in 2016. The Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ, or the Office of the Ombudsman) has been working on the development of these regulations, but they now need to be finalised.
Public procurement is normally at the epicentre of corruption. In emergency situations as this, the graft risks are higher — including that supplies can be diverted for resale in the grey and black markets, coupled with an increase in substandard and falsified products.
Indeed, aspersions have been cast on the quality of some face masks and sanitisers in the market with additional concerns on price gouging. The scarcity and demand for ventilators and other equipment for intensive care also come with increased opportunities for corruption.
The Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) should publish a market price index for all equipment and other medical supplies to guide the procurement of essential items. This is especially critical now with reported stock-outs of crucial items. Due to the nature of procurement contemplated, PPRA should further publish Emergency Procurement Guidelines to ensure that procuring entities balance the need to act without delay to save or preserve life with the need to uphold integrity, and ensure value for money and quality.
It is vital that the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) sets out clear regulations on the quality of products and services produced during this time to avoid putting Kenyans at further risk. All the relevant information should be published in due course with all procurement audited by the Office of the Auditor-General.
As government agencies pool resources to combat the pandemic, it’s worrying that the attendant regulations to respective funds have not been gazetted. For instance, the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury should prioritise the gazettement of the Asset Recovery Fund Regulations 2019 to put the fund into operation, embedding accountability measures in its use.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) should make public the guidelines of the Prosecution Fund, from which Sh2 billion has been channelled to the Covid-19 fund. At this point of great need, responsible agencies should intensify efforts to recover stolen resources to bolster the economy.
The government should ensure that profiteers do not trump the public interest. Every shilling saved from their talons will make a huge difference in addressing the emergency and amplify measures to flatten the curve and save precious lives.
Ms Masinde is the acting executive director, Transparency International Kenya. [email protected]
