I am alive to the fact that previously, there have been a number of recommendations that EACC and DCI have been asked to investigate further some of the possible misappropriation or abuse of the legal process.
That is why immediately I became the chair of Public Accounts Committee (PAC), I convened a meeting in Mombasa with all the players of accountability—those we partnered with in this work of holding public officers accountable.
We met with other audit committee chairpersons, in the meeting we also had Auditor General, Controller of Budget, EACC, DCI representation and Office of the Director of Public Prosecution.
We agreed on way forward and we even discussed some of the deficiencies in our reports because sometimes we blame these investigative agencies, but if the report is not watertight, there is little to investigate.
As a committee, we agreed that we will be doing thorough interrogation to the extent that those cases that we recommend are actually cases which are clear and which may lead to prosecution.
I am aware that EACC is so committed, they have expressed commitment that this time round they will be taking our reports, and will even demand that state officers adversely mentioned step aside.
I know that most of the cases in the report were in previous regime but with that as it may, going forward, we will now be doing public hearings on financial years where the current office holders are the accounting officers.
I am very confident that this time it is going to be different, EACC is going to take our report and act on it, and we have actually not made too many recommendations for investigations.
We wanted only serious cases pushed to the investigative bodies.
For the rest of the queries, we have our own mechanism of ensuring compliance and asking for status report.
If you look at our report we have insisted on the status reports on many issues and that Auditor General investigates further some actions.
Where we make recommendations to EACC are clear cases where we feel that certain cases need to be looked into.
The PAC chairman spoke to the Star
