VC clashes with MPs over audit queries

The National Assembly Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education had to postpone a cross-examination for audit queries of Maasai Mara University for failing to avail the required officials, as previously directed.

The university's Vice Chancellor Prof Penninah Aloo-Obudho clashed with the committee members over the team she brought to respond to audit queries, as they questioned the motive of the VC sending the substantive finance officer on compulsory leave just two days before she meets with the committee.

Similarly, the committee, chaired by Luanda MP Dick Maungu, questioned why the procurement officer and legal officer were absent despite the committee having previously directed the institution to appear with technical officers capable of responding to audit queries.

The VC was to respond to audit queries covering financial years 2018/19 to 2024/25.

No sooner had the meeting commenced than it turned into back and forth between the MPs and the VC, even as legislators accused her of being hostile when asked about failing to accompany key officers.

Kiminini MP Maurice Kaikai Bissau affirmed that the committee has the mandate and is entitled to interrogate arising audit queries, even as he demanded that the VC explain why she did not attend the meeting without the substantive finance officer.

According to Bissau, any attempts to conceal information will eventually be exposed by the committee.

“I’m surprised that the VC has just decided to be hostile. This is a public investments committee, an audit committee, and we are here to interrogate every issue,” Bissau said.

Sotik MP Francis Sigei also criticised the VC’s conduct, saying the committee had already explained that her predecessors were entitled to attend the proceedings.

Similarly, Igembe Central MP Daniel Karitho reminded the VC that the committee had previously been dissatisfied with her conduct in an earlier appearance.

He insisted that former officials of the university are required by the committee since some of the audit queries dated back to years when she was not in the institution.

“You came again and you expected a committee to listen to you without even the substantive finance officer and also the council?" Karitho posed.

Kasipul MP Boyd Were demanded an explanation why the finance officer was sent on compulsory leave, saying the committee could not proceed without understanding what had happened.

“The former VC and the former finance officer have a right to be here. You can’t tell us that you are surprised to see them here. They are former office holders,” Were said.

But the VC explained that the finance officer had been sent on compulsory leave, a decision made by the university council to allow investigations.

“We did not send the finance officer on leave with crucial information. This is a process that has been going on from last year, and therefore, when council concluded it, they said it was on compulsory leave to allow for investigations,” she said.

She, however, did not convince MPs, who raised concern that the officer had been sent on leave only two days before the university was due to appear before the committee.

 Karitho noted that the finance officer could have appeared before the committee and then proceeded on leave.

“My worry and my question is why two days before you appeared here? What could have happened if you came with a finance officer? We hear his admissions, then after that we give him the leave,” he said.

But Prof Aloo-Obudho maintained that sending the officer on leave was not intended to keep him away from the parliamentary inquiry.

Asked why she had not come with the procurement and legal officers, she said the university had interpreted the invitation differently, noting that she had previously brought a bigger delegation and was warned about the cost of bringing too many officers.

“The person who is not here is the legal officer and the procurement officer. And we were not informed that we should bring them along because the last time we were here, I had all those members, and I was told that I’m carrying so many people,” she said.

Bissau rejected the explanation, saying the missing officers were central to resolving the audit queries.

He argued that the VC, as an academic and administrator, could not be expected to answer highly technical questions concerning procurement, asset management and financial processes without the relevant departmental heads.

Maungu warned the VC against what he termed hostility and intimidation of the committee.

“This is a committee of Parliament; we are here for serious business. The committee will not be intimidated by a public officer appearing before it; engage MPs respectfully," Maungu said.

“The Maasai Mara University Vice-Chancellor demonstrated anger and outbursts before the chair, which is not allowed,” he added.

The committee was concerned over failure to conclusively resolve nine audit queries that had been raised during an earlier appearance.

Maungu said the committee directed Maasai Mara University last November to return with the former accounting officer, finance officer, procurement officer and legal team to respond to nine outstanding matters.

The queries included doubtful contracted services, unsupported cash and cash equivalents, irregular payment of allowances, overpayment of car allowances, omitted bank balances, unsupported council foreign travel and training expenditure, unsupported contracted service expenditure, irregular staff medical expenses and employee costs above the recommended wage bill.

A representative of the Auditor General said they still had not received an official response to the nine queries.

The VC insisted that the university had prepared responses and the matters were discussed between the internal and external auditors.

Maungu noted that the disagreement pointed to two sets of information — the unresolved audit matters covering 2018/19 to 2021/22 and subsequent issues covering 2023/24 and 2024/25.

He said the committee could not ignore the earlier unresolved queries because some of the issues continue to appear in subsequent audit reports.

For instance, doubtful contracted services and unsupported cash and cash equivalents had appeared in more than one audit period, while employee costs above the recommended wage bill also recurred.

“If we never concluded it then, there’s no way we can discuss it now. We have to look at it from where it began,” Hon. Maungu said.

He warned that prolonged failure to resolve audit queries relating to public funds creates room for abuse and misuse.

“When an entity receives public money from 2018 to today, yet a report has not been tabled in Parliament for that long, it is adequate room for abuse, adequate room for misuse, adequate room for funny things to happen,” he said.

The committee also revisited the tenure of former Vice-Chancellor Prof Mary Walingo, who served from 2014 to August 2019, with MPs seeking clarity on which administration was responsible for specific audit periods.

Prof Walingo told the committee that she had not been invited by the current administration to appear before the committee.

“All the time she’s been asked to invite us, she has never done it even once,” Prof Walingo said.

Walingo also defended her presence at the hearing, saying she had attended because some of the audit matters dated back to the period when she was in charge.

She served as VC from 2014 to August 2019, was succeeded in an acting capacity by Prof Onyango Kitche Magak from September 2019 to January 2022, followed by Prof Joseph S Chacha from January 2022 to June 2023.

Prof Aloo-Obudho ran the university in an acting capacity from June 2023 and was confirmed in January 2024.

The committee also heard that the university's controversial “Mara Heist” occurred in 2019, during Prof Walingo’s tenure.

Central Imenti MP Moses Kirima raised the issue while seeking to establish the circumstances surrounding previous scandals at the institution.

Prof Aloo-Obudho confirmed that the incident, which MPs associated with arrests and financial irregularities, occurred in 2019 when Prof Walingo was still VC.

The hearing also exposed tensions between the current and former university administrations despite Prof Aloo-Obudho denying having any personal differences with Prof Walingo.

“I have nothing against the former officer,” Prof Aloo-Obudho said.

She also apologised to the committee over her conduct at the start of the meeting, saying she had not understood that Parliament could independently summon former university officials and accepted the committee’s clarification.

“My sincere apologies to the committee,” she said.

The committee stepped down the VC and ordered the university to work with the Auditor-General to resolve the nine outstanding audit issues before returning to Parliament.

Maungu directed the VC that she should be accompanied by the relevant current or former officials who were responsible for the matters under investigation in her next appearance.

The committee gave the university two weeks to prepare and return with the required officials and information.