Close scrutiny from parliamentary watchdog committees is interfering with Government business, the Prime Minister has said.

Top civil servants are working slower because of House teams breathing down their necks.

It has also emerged there was an effort to prevent a committee from questioning Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday. The developments reflect a continuing power struggle between the Legislature and the Executive.

PM Raila Odinga complained about the effect of the excessive scrutiny during the first meeting of the House Business Committee on Tuesday evening. Raila said many senior civil servants were wary of being called in to explain or justify their decisions.

The PM reportedly stunned those attending the meeting when he said the operations of Government were being hampered due to the "fear" created by watchdog committees.

Speaker Kenneth Marende, who chairs the HBC, defended the public watchdogs, saying that was how Parliament was supposed work.

Watchdog committees have begun keeping a closer eye on public spending and are now challenging some payments before they are made. The Standard established the prospect of a date with the House watchdogs has made civil servants more cautious in approving any spending.

Government officials take more time on each transaction and get more involved in drawing up payment programmes.

Marende told the HBC meeting that with the new Standing Orders, the system of auditing and querying expenditure of public funds had now taken a new dimension.

He argued civil servants were to blame for failing to adapt to the new system. Those running scared, he said, were among the officials who had skipped a recent workshop organised by Parliament to appraise MPs and Government officials on the new Standing Orders.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chaired by Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale was singled out for directly querying and auditing public funds before and in the payment stages.

This is a departure from previous practice, where committees merely carried out "post-mortem reports" of public spending.

In the former system, the team would be looking at past cases of possible fraud, suspicious variation of costs, single-sourcing and outright theft.

Committees usually presented reports to the House two or three years after suspect transactions. Now, Government officials can expect to have to provide explanations as some transactions are executed.

Marende was categorical civil servants must be ready to work within the new Standing Orders and respond to any audit queries the House will require them to.

On Monday, this week PAC summoned Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and other officials and questioned them for over three hours on the procurement of 130 VW Passat vehicles for Government officials. The move, according to Uhuru as outlined in his Budget Speech in June, is aimed at cutting Government spending on transport. Dr Khalwale, who is the PAC chairman and also a member of the HBC, was taken aback by the PM’s sentiments and sought the Speaker’s guidance, our sources revealed. Others who attended the Tuesday meeting were Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, Uhuru and two other members: Dr Joyce Laboso (Sotik) and Adan Keynan (Wajir East).

Sources said there were efforts to scuttle Uhuru’s questioning by PAC. The meeting was delayed for 40 minutes as Parliament engaged Treasury officials as to whether the move was procedural. In the end, Khalwale produced a letter signed by the Clerk of the National Assembly Patrick Gichohi summoning Uhuru to appear before the committee a week in advance as required by the Standing Orders.

Uhuru later appeared before the committee and presented the Government’s position.

During the current Parliament, after the new Standing Orders came into effect, the Departmental Committee on Finance headed by Nambale MP Chris Okemo reprimanded former Finance Minister Amos Kimunya for lying to the House over the sale of the prestigious Grand Regency hotel. Kimunya was later censured by Parliament, which passed a vote of no confidence in the minister and asked him to step aside.

However, a presidential Commission of Inquiry absolved him of any wrongdoing. He was, however, later transferred from the Treasury to Trade, his current workstation.

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