The Attorney-General has blocked the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) from revealing or tabling in Parliament findings of a forensic audit on the collapse of Imperial Bank.
CBK governor Patrick Njoroge and Treasury Cabinet secretary Ukur Yatani said the State could not share findings or summaries of the report with the National Assembly as required under Article 125 of the Constitution.
The Attorney-General has blocked the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) from revealing or tabling in Parliament findings of a forensic audit on the collapse of Imperial Bank.
CBK governor Patrick Njoroge and Treasury Cabinet secretary Ukur Yatani said the State could not share findings or summaries of the report with the National Assembly as required under Article 125 of the Constitution.
Dr Njoroge said there are several cases related to the forensic audit that are before the courts and further work by investigating agencies was progressing.
“The Attorney-General advised that, in the circumstances, sharing at this stage the findings and summaries of the forensic audit would undermine investigations and prejudice successful prosecution and defence of the ongoing cases. The overriding objective is to guard against prejudicing the course of investigations,” he said.
Imperial Bank, which is under Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation receivership, collapsed on October 13, 2015.
The CBK put the bank under receivership for widespread manipulation of the IT system to conceal financial malpractices, an indication of money laundering and cheque kiting schemes. Initial reports indicated that Imperial Bank had a huge bad loan book, fictitious deposits, unsecured insider lending and conflict of interest by shareholders and directors.
Imperial Bank directors were accused of failing to co-operate with the CBK on the reopening of the bank through their refusal to deposit Sh10 billion as the first step to reviving the lender.
The CBK then went ahead in 2016 and hired FTI, a specialised forensic accounting consultancy, to Imperial Bank books and assist CBK and KDIC to institute criminal and civil proceedings against those responsible for the collapse of the bank.
“Given the significance of these cases with respect to the financial sector and also the legal system, and the strong desire not to jeopardise their fair and prompt conclusion, CBK sees considerable risk,” Dr Njoroge said told the Finance Committee yesterday.
He did not disclose the amount paid to FTI after Alego Usonga MP Samuel Atandi demanded to know why CBK still pays the auditor. He said CBK does not pay FTIs fees.
“This FTI consulting is still in CBK payroll and receiving billions of shillings from 2015. The governor is hiding something. Tell us how much money is this company being paid monthly or has been paid,” said Mr Atandi.
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