Hard questions as EACC seeks more funding from Treasury

A new multi-billion shilling office building in upmarket Nairobi, three times the annual budget, 500 new detectives, plus a cache of state-of-the-art surveillance equipment top the list of new demands the anti-corruption agency wants in the hunt for stolen public funds.

In a dossier filed with a parliamentary committee, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) says it needs the resources to trace and recover at least Sh50 billion of stolen public property, and thwart the theft of another Sh50 billion from the public coffers – within a year. But the commission will have to prove it’s worth the money, as numerous questions have been raised on it’s independence and performance.

The commission wants National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich to triple its budget. It wants to buy a new building nearly twice the size of its current headquarters. It wants more money to increase staff salaries.

It is a big ask for a body whose budget has doubled in three financial years under the Jubilee administration, yet it has little to show in terms of convictions. The Justice and Legal Affairs Committee pointed out this but to the EACC, the bottleneck is not just the shortage of crucial resources, but also the gymnastics of litigation in the courts.

If you ask EACC Chief Executive Halakhe Waqo, he will bluntly tell you he wants more: More cash; more people; more space; and more equipment. The commission asked for Sh7.9 billion in the next financial year, but the National Treasury worked the maths and could only afford Sh2.8 billion. Just over one-third of what, according to the EACC, is desperately needed. The EACC cut its budget again – some projects could wait — to Sh4.4 billion. But that too was too much. The Treasury stuck at Sh2.8 billion.

Now, they want the MPs to step in, and get that money from some project in the Sh2.26 trillion budget.

The commission asked for Sh2.3 billion to buy a building in Kilimani, just next to Integrity Centre, their current headquarters, but that request was ignored.

The shocking statistic that Waqo dropped on MPs in their two-hour meeting that ended at lunchtime on Wednesday was that he has a shortage of 1,825 staff. Put another way, he is operating with just a quarter of the staff that he needs. There are only 421 officers, yet the structure requires 2246 staff to be supported.

Huge mandate

“The number was grossly inadequate and therefore meant that the Commission could only execute its activities to a limited degree despite the huge mandate and the high demand for its services,” the EACC told the Treasury. For that, the commission wants Sh1.8 billion – Sh1.4 billion for the new staff, and Sh400 million for perks and pay increase.

As MPs tried to digest the bombshell, he went ahead and told them that the commission was hemorrhaging staff. In fact on that Wednesday morning, in a somewhat foul mood, because, when he walked into his office, one of his “most reliable” evidence analysts had resigned.

The commission pays its senior lawyers with at least ten years of experience a salary of Sh373,000. In the Judiciary, their counterparts earn Sh513,000. The EACC lawyers have no mortgage; those in the Judiciary have access to a subsidized mortgage at three per cent. The EACC lawyers have no car loan scheme. At some point they had to walk. The allure of greener pastures.

“Ten have left (the EACC) and have been appointed judges,” Michael Mubea, the EACC’s Deputy Secretary told the MPs.

The MPs are keen to increase the pay packets of the staff, if only to shield these staff from leaving the EACC. The commission seeks Sh400 million for house and car loans.

“We must find a way to retain them,” said Samuel Chepkonga, the chairman of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.  Waqo, too wants 500 additional staff, enough to handle the deluge of corruption complaints –20 every day, 600 per month.

For a building, the EACC has identified three buildings in Kilimani and Community areas. The sellers are quoting Sh2.3 billion. “We cannot afford Sh2.3 billion to buy a building. The price has to be modest! It shouldn’t be that if the government is buying, then the price goes hire. You are the people charged with maintaining integrity in public service,” David Ochieng’ (Ugenya) said.

If they have to buy a building, they will have to pay in installments over three years. “A seller will quote whatever they think, but as the buyers we will pay what we think is reasonable market price as per the valuation report,” Waqo responded.

The plan was for the EACC to share the costs with the Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko, get all their development budget into one pot and buy a House.

But MPs Chepkonga, Ochieng and Peter Kaluma (Homa Bay Town) argue the EACC has to be independent. Alone. They now want to go for the new wing of the National Social Security Fund in Community. It will cost Sh1.2 billion for all the 85,000 square feet. They will pay in three installments or less, depending on what they agree with the MPs and the Treasury.

But EACC will have to prove it has changed from ways of the past, when it was viewed as a compromised entity at the mercy of powerful and well-connected Kenyans. The flip-flopping when it cleared former CS Anne Waiguru, then said, she was still under investigations is a case in point. Then, there are the pending questions about the pace of investigations. The Chickengate scandal has also been pending at the commission for two years, and even with the long wait, the EACC said it needed 30 more days to “analyse evidence” and nail culprits.

The Youth Fund investigations are also pending nearly a month after the Public Investments Committee of the National Assembly concluded investigations and pinpointed those responsible for the looting at the Fund.

The Eurobond saga where a Sh250 billion sovereign loan came into the country but the government is unable to pinpoint the projects where the money was used, is also another case in point.

The EACC investigated the issue, and even with the prima facie misuse of money at the ministry level, it passed the buck to the office of the Auditor General. There are even questions about whether the money left the US with the opposition claiming it was stolen and stashed in private offshore accounts.