Ministry says document with inflated figures wrong, to table correct one

The Ministry of Devolution now says the document that was presented to Parliamentary Accounts Committee on Tuesday contained inconsistencies and was the wrong one.

While appearing before the same committee Wednesday afternoon, Devolution Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti, who was appearing for the second day and accompanied Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru, said there was a mix-up in the figures and the document presented to the committee had factual errors.

Mangiti told the committee that the original and factual figures that were refined will be readily available for its inspection in two weeks.

He said that the report and accounting documents to be presented to the committee within 14 days will contain the specific Local Purchasing Orders (LPOs) copies and invoices as well as payment vouchers where applicable.

The PS dismissed claims that the Ministry had actually spent the money as per the documents in the committee’s possession saying that it was not logical to purchase some of the highlighted items at the indicated prices.

On her part, CS Waiguru denied being involved in the procurement process saying that the Ministry, like any other government department, has accounting and procuring officers.

She also denied that she had a single TV set in her office that was procured at a cost of Ksh 1.7 million and a piano purchased at Ksh 235,000.

The assets register submitted to the committee by Mangiti indicated that more than Ksh 170,000 was spent to purchase pens, and a further Ksh 245,000 to purchase 100 4GB flash disks, that would ordinarily cost less than Ksh 500 per piece.

Waiguru said: “I would be shocked if we bought the pens at Ksh 8,700. I am not involved in tendering, I don’t choose who procures or even see the price list, unless an issue is raised, I can’t know.”

“It concerns me immensely but my enthusiasm for integrity has been our main undoing, if we kept quiet, nobody would have known.”

The Public Accounts Committee questioned Waiguru’s effectiveness in managing the devolution and national planning docket, after her insistence that finance issues were an exclusive domain of her Principal Secretaries.

The Cabinet Secretary coming under fire for the persistent linking of her docket to major corruption allegations, including the recent loss of Ksh 791 million from the National Youth Service accounts said that she had “stopped the theft of Ksh 820 million but discovered that Ksh 791 million was lost” saying that the biggest issue would be “if we knew there was a problem and did nothing about it”.

Waiguru and her two Principal Secretaries will appear before the committee in two weeks to submit a fresh list of transactions, even as PAC insisted it will go through the Ministry’s accounts with a tooth comb and flag out figures that will not be adding up.

 Additional report by Francis Gachuri