Ombudsman says EACC blocking probe into impropriety

Senior Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) officials have blocked the Ombudsman’s office from accessing the agency’s documents, stalling investigations into allegations of bribery involving the anti-graft watchdog’s agents, Parliament heard on Wednesday.

The Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ), popularly known as the Ombudsman, told a parliamentary committee that the restriction has made it impossible to interrogate claims that EACC agents were allocated houses to drop investigations into impropriety at the National Social Security Fund (NSSF).

The Ombudsman said in documents tabled before the National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs committee that its investigations into the EACC’s alleged abuse of power in awarding a deputy commission secretary a salary that is beyond the rate approved by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) had also stalled.

“It has been impossible to penetrate the two institutions (the EACC and the NSSF),” CAJ chairman Otiende Amollo said, adding that EACC officials had been threatened with unspecified repercussions should they share any information with the Ombudsman.

“Officers from NSSF expressed similar fears,” Micah Nguli, the director, research and investigations, at the CAJ wrote to Mr Amollo in an internal memo dated February 16, 2015.

The Ombudsman launched investigations into the bribery allegations after it received an anonymous complaint against the EACC on May 18, 2014.

Mr Nguli told Mr Amollo in the internal memo that EACC chief executive Halake Waqo had refused to provide the Ombudsman with a certified copy of staff payroll for the last six months and certified job adverts for the position of deputy commission secretaries on August 14, 2014.

“The commission secretary said the EACC will not provide the required documents... We also had a meeting with the chair of the EACC who stated that it was not in the interest of the EACC to provide the requisite information to us,” Mr Nguli said.

Salary structure

The Ombudsman said he received a detailed salary structure for the EACC staff from the SRC acting secretary Anne Gitau which indicated that the Sh780,000 salary that was awarded to the deputy commission secretary did not have the SRC’s approval.

David Too, the EACC director for legal services, later wrote to the Ombudsman urging him to respect and uphold the rule of law given that the matter in question was being handled by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

“The matters which you intend to investigate are now within the purview of another law enforcement agency (DCI). Section 30 of the CAJ Act states that the commission shall not investigate any matter for the time being under investigation by any other person or commission established under the Constitution or any other written law,” the letter said.

Mr Too said it was the EACC’s considered opinion that the Ombudsman’s decision to interrogate matters that are under investigations by the DCI contradicted the law.

On the NSSF, the CAJ said it invited an official from the pension fund who promised to provide the commission with a printout of houses sold but the official later called to say he had been denied access to the system.

“The officer later called and said that all staff had been denied access to the system database, making it impossible for him to offer us any assistance,” the CAJ said.

The Ombudsman told MPs that the CAJ had faced a number of challenges in its attempt to investigate misconduct by public officials working with the two institutions.

“On unspecified dates in the month of September, 2014, I was called by a prominent personality who advised that we should not continue with investigations as intended and that the CAJ was fighting the Jubilee government. I verbally shared this information with the chair, CAJ,” Mr Nguli said in his memo to the MPs.