State agencies shun officers cleared in procurement probe

Accounting and procuring officers cleared following a corruption vetting exercise have been unable to resume duty as State corporations treat them with suspicion and are now assigning them other roles.

A number of them have reported that their employers have already started the process of recruiting their replacement while others say they have been assigned duties in other departments that are not in line with their professional qualifications.

President Uhuru Kenyatta in July ordered all heads of accounting and procurement units in ministries, departments and agencies to step aside to face vetting in the fight against corruption.

The vetting was concluded in August and about 300 officials were cleared from about 1,000 that underwent the exercise.

Through the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (Icpak), some of the procurement and accounting officials say they have been unable to return to their offices as their employers treat them with suspicion despite having been cleared during the vetting exercise.

Denied access

“These officers are being denied access to their previous offices or being redeployed to unrelated departments that are not in line with their expertise,” said Icpak Chief Executive Edwin Makori yesterday.

“We have a number of State corporations, and particularly public universities, where the officers were never taken back to their roles. These are not culprits, they are professionals and should be able to either get back to their original roles or get matching roles so that they can discharge duties that are equivalent to their skills and expertise.”