Hillary Mageka and Anthony Mwangi @PeopleDailyKe
Terms of Auditor General and Controller of Budget officially come to an end in about a month amid growing anxiety that delay in picking their replacements could throw the country’s public finance management into a crisis.
Edward Ouko and Agnes Odhiambo vacate office on August 26 as Auditor-General and Controller of Budget, respectively, after serving their eight-year tenure.
However, observers are quick to point out that the situation for Ouko and Odhiambo is not unique and cite recent delays, last-minute replacements for other constitutional office holders namely Kenya Revenue Authority Director General John Njiraini, Inspector General of police Joseph Boinett, Chief of Defence Samson Mwathethe, commissioners of the National Land Commission (NLC), who hang on to their offices as the clock ticked.
Critical role
For Ouko and Odhiambo’s replacements, a selection panel to shortlist, interview and present possible three names for appointment to the President as Auditor General and Controller of Budget respectively has to be in place in line with Public Audit Act.
Multiple sources we spoke to stressed the expediency factor given their critical roles and expertise requirement in ensuring accountable and frugal use of national resources.
In an interview with People Daily, International Certified Public Accountants Association of Kenya (ICPAK) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Edwin Makori said delay in picking Ouko and Odhiambo successors could lead to a crunch in public finance management sectors as there will be no one to sign audited reports for financial 2018/19 or authorise expenditure and withdrawal of public funds by national and county governments.
In May, ICPAK had recommended that the process of selection successors for the two offices should be initiated three months before the expiry of their term.
“Delay in release of funds, means delay in provision of services to mwananchi,” Makori said.
Given the well documented run-ins both have had with the Executive and Legislative arms of government over wastage, fraudulent and less than prudent expenditures, there is bound to be political interest, with a “friendly candidates” allegedly being scouted.
Attempts to find an independent auditor to scrutinise the Auditor General’s books before his exit could also complicate the succession battle as Parliament, which has been pushing for the bid, has failed — four times — to find a local auditor willing to do the job.
The Clerk of the National Assembly Michael Sialai had in April sought permission to procure the services of an accountant from any of the commonwealth countries.
The other contentious point is likely to be the Jubilee Party succession battles ahead of the 2022 General election and President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga’s handshake which has changed the country’s political complexion, sending key political players into re-strategising made.
According, Dr Anthony Osambo, the Dean of Taxation Department at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), the new Auditor General must be a person with a bias in government accounting.
“Previously most people who have occupied the Office of the Auditor General have been Financial Accountants not people with experience in government accounting. The global practice is to set up what they call, the Public Sector Accounting Standards Board which reports on government financial accounting,” he says.
Kenya, he said, has failed to implement that policy and instead uses those formulated by other countries. This, Osambo says, is what is responsible for the runaway misappropriation of resources in the public sector.
Recruitment process
Osambo said the government ought to have started the recruitment process much earlier, considering that it (government) and other entities were in the process of tendering.
National Assembly Budget and Appropriation Committee Chairman Kimani Ichungw’a was full of praise for Ouko and Odhiambo. The two, he said, did a good job despite the limited resources allocated to their offices.
But Ichung’wa also observed that the new AG, must be alive to the reality that there is rampant misappropriation of funds in both the national and devolved governments and ensure pre-emptive measures are put in place to mitigate the fiscal abuse and not restrict his job to reporting after the theft and other damage has been done.
Majority Leader in the National Assembly and Garissa Town MP Aden Duale who has occasionally taken exception to Ouko’s reports, nonetheless applauded him and Odhiambo, saying as the first holders to the positions under the new Constitution, they have done a splendid job.
“I am particularly pleased that they have discharged their respective mandates without any fear or favour,” Duale told People Daily in an interview.
However, he challenged the yet-to-be constituted selection panel to pick individuals of high standards in strict adherence with Chapter Six of the constitution and that they should not have any political leanings.
“The selection team and by extension Parliament should do due diligence on the individuals who will take up these positions,” said Duale.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Opiyo Wandayi, who held that the successors should not only be persons of high calibre but also have impeccable character, shared the sentiments.
Worth emulating
According to Wandayi, the duo’s performance is worth emulating, saying they have met Kenyans’ expectations despite the many challenges they faced.
Wandayi, who is Ugunja MP, said the offices should be shielded from political interference and suggested that the Auditor’s office should be strengthened.
The Public Investments Committee (PIC) chairperson in the National Assembly, Abdulswamad Nassir, praised Ouko’s performance, but said there is need for the office to expedite the release of special audit reports on queries raised by members. Ouko and Odhiambo were appointed on August 27, 2011.
