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Search for Auditor-General extends to March after court order

radido

Justice Stephen Radido. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Recruitment of the next Auditor-General will stretch into March after the Employment Court last threw a spanner in the works.

Justice Stephen Radido issued orders barring the selection panel from conducting fresh shortlisting of candidates, pending determination of the case challenging re-advertisement of the position. The judge set February 20 as the hearing date.

The move adds to the high-stake intrigues that have shadowed efforts to replace Mr Edward Ouko who retired last August.

The process started immediately and the selection panel hinted that it had forwarded three names to State House, but later made a hasty U-turn saying none of the 17 candidates interviewed qualified for the job.

Activist Okiya Omtatah rushed to court to challenge the move by the selection panel led by the chairperson of the Public Service Commission Stephen Karogo to reject the very names it had previously shortlisted for the job.

The delay to name a substantive Auditor-General complicates financial planning for State Corporations and firms controlled by State whose financial books are yet to be signed.

Among the affected are KenGen, which has since delayed its dividend payment for the year ended June after the bureaucratic holdup tied its hands.

Kenya Power and Kenya Pipeline Company, as well as several other corporations are also likely to suffer the same fate given that they have been equally affected by the vacancy.

Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has also said that it cannot submit its audited books of accounts to Parliament due to the lack of a substantive Auditor-General to sign them.

Section 81 of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 requires the accounting officer of a national government entity to, not later than three months after the end of each financial year, submit the financial statements to the Auditor-General among other constitutional offices and publicise the financial statements.

In the petition, Mr Omtatah argued that the panel does not have the powers to reject the candidates who had been shortlisted. He said the decision to re-advertise the vacancy was unconstitutional.

On December 11, 2019 Mr Karogo announced the panel was unable to pick any names for nomination.

The chairperson said the candidates met the technical requirements including academic qualifications but scored poorly in tests of independence and diplomacy, which were key considerations.

But Mr Omtatah said the considerations imposed by the panel cannot be used to bar candidates who meet the eligibility threshold set in law.

“That where persons meet the eligibility thresholds set in the Constitution and legislation, the selection panel does not have the power to decline to select three candidates from those interviewed for the position and forward the names to the President as required by law,” he said.

Mr Omtatah said the law does not provide for a midway cancellation of a recruitment and there can be no re-advertisement until all the three names have been rejected by Parliament.

He argued that if the panel had concerns about extraneous qualities they had taken into consideration, the law required them to submit three names with the President. “It was then down to Parliament to carry out their own part in the recruitment process,” he said.