Some Members of Parliament have mooted a plan to remove the Controller of Budget (CoB) Agnes Odhiambo from office for allegedly colluding with governors to approve withdrawals that were not in line with their respective Appropriations Acts.
When the House resumes from a short recess, Speaker Justin Muturi is expected to make a ruling over the matter which was raised by Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa, who is accuses Odhiambo of either sleeping on the job or just being inept.
Point of order
In his Point of Order read last week, Ichung’wa stated: “Now that the leader of majority party has laid several papers before this House, relating to audited accounts of various state agencies, I wonder when he will ever lay the 2015/2016 half-year report of the Controller of Budget as required in Article 228(6) of the Constitution.”
He was implying Odhiambo had delayed the execution of her office’s constitutional mandate. The CoB submitted the First Quarter report on 2015/16 but the document was not in line with the required format. The half-year report or the Second Quarter was expected to be submitted to Parliament by February, 2016, but is yet to be submitted.
These perceived failures, according to a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) who did not want to be named, can cause removal of the CoB from office as they display violation of the Constitution.
“Failure to submit these reports is a clear violation by CoB to the Constitutional provision as enshrined in Article 228(6),” said the PAC member.
The Controller of Budget reports must also be on a programme-based format for conformity with the 2015/16 Appropriation Acts that were assented to at the National and County Levels.
Parliament and County Assemblies are expected by the Constitution to get the budget documents in stipulated time to adequately play their oversight roles.
“Failure to provide the documentation distracts or denies the Legislature ample time to carry out its role (Articles 95(4) and 96(3)),” said Ichung’wa. However, the onslaught against Odhiambo is likely to read from a different angle.
Eurobond report
Odhiambo has been on the spot since a report on the Eurobonds was leaked, with some Jubilee mandarins accusing her of being behind the leak.
The CoB had told Parliament she had not approved the withdrawal of Eurobond money from offshore accounts where proceeds from the loan had been deposited.
In an interview with a local television station on December 21, Cord leader Raila Odinga said Odhiambo had confided in him that over USD1 billion from the Eurobond proceeds was not pumped into the Kenyan economy. “I talked to her before I even went public and she told me a different story . . . she is under a lot of pressure and I actually sympathise with her. She is being intimidated and blackmailed to change that story,” Raila said.
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