Editorials

Punish parastatal breaches

senate

Telecom operators will pay customers up to Sh30 per day for dropped calls if Parliament adopts a revived Bill that imposes a penalty for voice service outages. PHOTO | POOL

Should Parliament establish that chief executives of parastatals breached their fiduciary duty, action must be taken against them to ensure a culture of accountability in public finances takes root.

The heads of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the Kerio Valley Development Authority, Lake Basin Development Authority, Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority and Ewaso Nyiro North Development Authority have been summoned to appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

They have been accused of spending more than Sh370 million at source without the authority of the Treasury.

This is in breach of the Public Finance Management Act and the provisions of the Constitution that require State entities to surrender all internally generated funds.

These are serious allegations and, if confirmed, the leaders of those institutions must be penalised, including by being removed from office.

Failure to hold them accountable will send a wrong message that public officials can ignore rules meant to safeguard taxpayers’ money.

It would make a mockery of the budgeting process which is designed to raise funds from various sources and then distribute the same to different government departments and agencies based on their approved needs.