Kenyans disagree on many things. However, many would concur that outgoing Auditor General Edward Ouko and the Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo did stellar work. They have true meaning to Chapter 15 of the Constitution that gives their offices independence. Despite strong-arm tactics by the Executive and Parliament, they never flinched in their roles and brought accountability to the heart of governance.
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Over her eight-year tenure, Odhiambo produced quarterly reports on budget execution and highlighted key problems in public finance. She was vocal on expenditure on non-core activities, particularly conferences and foreign travel.
Ouko’s audit reports gave governors and accounting officers across government sleepless nights. Despite the rampant culture of sleaze, Kenyans had a dependable watchman. Unfortunately, the two have completed their constitutional terms and replacements must now be sought. The best gift the Public Service Commission can give to Kenyans is to ensure that the next holders of the two offices are not only exceptionally competent but also men and women of unshakeable integrity. And toughness to resist pressure from those who fear their message.
The PSC must not give Kenyans apologists who recoil when the kitchen gets too hot. The qualifications for this job must go beyond 10 years’ experience. Hopefully, Chupilee hustler gang will not appoint regime boys and girls who will see no evil, and hear no evil. Ouko wants amendments to the Constitution to create a Head of State separate from the head of government, who will work independently of each other to help protect his office from the wrath of an imperial presidency.
Mr Ouko says a Head of State will shield his office from being taken down by a powerful President since auditing the executive is equal to auditing the President as they are his appointees. As he gave his reflections on an eight-year, tumultuous, non-renewable term in office which ended Tuesday, Mr Ouko also said that before the Treasury is allowed to read its annual budgets with fanfare in Parliament, his office should first give a report card on how the government utilized the resources of the previous year.
“Under the current system, the auditor is up against the President and his ministers. If the President is protective of his ministers, then the audit is watered down,”
Mr Ouko said at a public lecture as he reviewed his performance as the first auditor-general in Kenya under the new Constitution.
He said by having the Head of State different from the head of government, his office will have a protector and this will help make it more independent.
“My wife told me, ‘you have to be careful’,” Mr Ouko said as he recalled some of his turbulent times.
Analysts have praised Mr Ouko as having had a stellar performance in terms of pointing out shortcomings of the government’s financial accountability and exposing corruption. A good chunk of his audit reports, however, was never acted upon by investigative agencies. “I think he has performed the way an independent Auditor-General should. There were attempts to take away the independence of the office but it is good it never happened,” Mr Robert Shaw, a public policy and accounting expert, told the Nation.
“He helped us understand what is being stolen; but like all auditor-generals, he was not the arresting entity. His job was to put facts on the table, which he did.
The only weakness is these audit reports ended up there,” explained Mr Shaw.