NAIROBI: President Uhuru Kenyatta's Chief of Staff Joseph Kinyua and top officials of the National Treasury and the Central Bank of Kenya top the list of 'persons of interest' that opposition leader Raila Odinga wants nailed for the "missing" billions in the Eurobond saga.
Addressing a news conference in Nairobi, Mr Odinga said Kinyua, Treasury's Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, the principal secretary Kamau Thugge, CBK chairman Mohammed Nyaoga, former CBK governor Njuguna Ndung'u, accountant-general Bernard Ndung'u and CBK's financial markets director John Birech and his financial management colleague Moses Muthui owed Kenyans an explanation on how the Sh250 billion bond was spent.
The opposition leader, who was honouring his three-day ultimatum to give names, said the officials had to be charged of negligence. Odinga alleged the documents of remittances of the money into the country were forged and insisted that nearly half the amount – Sh102 billion—never made it into the country.
At a time when the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has already asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to close the file and ask the Auditor General for a forensic audit on the Eurobond billions, the opposition chief slammed the local institutions for lacking the capacity to unearth official theft of public funds.
"The scheme is so elaborate, so thick and so reckless that we believe these officers acted for or on instructions from bosses higher up the Executive ladder. Your guess is as good as mine on who the owners of the plot really are," said Raila.
Mr Odinga asked President Kenyatta to seek global help independent international Forensic Audit like the UK's Serious Fraud Office to completely track and trace the whereabouts of Sh 102 billion ($999 million) of the Eurobond Proceeds that were not paid into the Consolidated Fund.
The opposition chief now demands that Rotich, Thugge and Mr Bernard Ndungu to resign immediately and be arraigned in court for committing the following acts or omissions undermining the Constitution by refusing to deposit the Eurobond proceeds immediately and in full into the Consolidated Fund.
Odinga also wants the trio nailed for concocting documents to cover up a massive loss of Public Funds and for deliberately misleading the Public Accounts Committee and taxpayers that the Eurobond Proceeds were paid in full into the Consolidated Fund.
Odinga also wants President Uhuru Kenyatta to declare the Eurobond matter a National Disaster, invite Serious Fraud Unit to investigate where the money went terming it 'theft in an elaborate scheme led by the Kenyan government.
The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) leader claimed that there are no bank statements or third party evidence of what happened to the money deposited into the account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
He said that the National Treasury has been engaged in an elaborate scheme of deception intended to mislead the Kenya taxpayers that the proceeds of the Eurobond were deposited into the Consolidated Fund, even where there is clear evidence to the contrary.
"The National Treasury did not pay immediately into the Consolidated Fund, the Full Amount of the Net Proceeds of the Sovereign Bond of Sh 173 .9 billion (US$1.9billion) which were received on June 24, 2014," claimed Raila.
He said that contrary to Article 206(1) of the Constitution and the Public Finance Management Act Section 50 (7)(a) the National Treasury did not obtain the approval of the Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo prior to making withdrawals from the Net Proceeds of the Eurobond when effecting the repayment of the Syndicated Loan.
"The National Treasury is also in breach of Article 221(6) of the Constitution, as a direct consequence of the failure to pay the proceeds of the Eurobond in full into the Consolidated Fund," said Mr Odinga.
According to Mr Odinga, President Kenyatta should also institute an audit of expenditure allegedly funded by the Eurobond proceeds and immediately implement the Treasury Single Account (TSA) to remove the plethora of opaque revenue collection accounts such as "Sovereign Bond Accounts through which corrupt government officials divert revenues into before revenues are paid into the Consolidated Fund.
He challenged the Head of state to declare Integrated Financial Management System as a material deficiency in accounting and public financial management a National Disaster and shame.
He also want the President to appoint persons with deep knowledge and experience of accounting and financial management to the highest levels of the National Treasury and to restore the independence of the Office of the Auditor General.
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