The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has dismissed a report by Parliament as a witch-hunt intended to "summarily guillotine" its officials.
In a 16-page document presented to MPs on Tuesday, the IEBC said that the report of the Public Accounts Committee was based on erroneous information about its operations.
"It is evident that a substantial portion of the PAC report was based on conjecture and highly subjective views of the Committee members and not the Auditor General's report they were supposedly considering," the IEBC response states.
The report claims that the PAC disregarded evidence provided by the Commission and went beyond its mandate which was to look into the report of the Auditor-General.
"The report of the Public Accounts Committee is, taken at its best, a 'bill of attainder' designed to summarily guillotine officials of the Commission through contrived and concocted information with the intention of achieving other ends," IEBC chairman Issack Hassan told the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee on Tuesday when he handed over the report.
"We have our own personal stories to tell about this entire audit process but we choose to remain sober and focused on our work," he said.
Hassan and his team appearing before the Justice Committee on Tuesday to address the PAC report and then again yesterday to defend the IEBC's 2016/17 budget.
The PAC report has accused Hassan and commissioners Thomas Letangule and Mohammed Alawi of influencing the procurement of election equipment, including voter identification kits, that failed during the 2013 general election.
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It recommended that a lifestyle audit of the commissioners be conducted to establish the source of their wealth.
"The recommendation (on lifestyle audit) is not supported by the Auditor-General's report as well as evidence before PAC. This recommendation is founded upon misconceived and wrong assumption that the conduct of the commissioners amount to criminal acts. It also takes away the responsibility from the accounting officer," Hassan said.
The PAC recommended that the CEO Ezra Chiloba be surcharged for Sh258 million that the IEBC paid to Face Technologies and be barred from holding public office.
However the IEBC report says that the MPs failed to consider that the payment was recommended and authorised by the Treasury.
"The entire recommendation is not founded on fact and law. It is important to stress that the Accounting Officer has been judged unfairly. PAC made the recommendation on a payment that was not part of the audit report," the IEBC report said.
The IEBC said that the PAC dwelt at great length on issues that were not the subject of the Auditor-General's audit report.
"And when it did, they misinterpreted the factual grounding upon which the Auditor General has generated its report," Hassan said.
The IEBC said that there are numerous instances where the PAC makes recommendations outside the facts presented to them.
"Instances where the Committee recommends investigations on an individual for a decision made when in fact that individual, from documents availed to both the Auditor General and PAC was no in meetings where the decision was made," Hassan said.
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He also said that the PAC insisted that each Commissioner appear individually but the MPs then summarised their "entire evidence as one."
"It is noteworthy that the recommendations made by the PAC lack internal coherence and consistency. The entire process of the audit fell short of the standards of the rules of natural justice. The Auditor General's report was concluded and submitted to PAC without giving a chance to the Commission to respond," the IEBC report said.
Hassan insisted that the IEBC gave information to the PAC to which the MPs failed to give due consideration in their final report.
"History will judge us harshly if we allow our society to be treated to unfortunate misrepresentations about the Commission or individuals who hold those offices in trust," Hassan said.
The PAC report requested a full investigation to be launched against Hassan, Commission CEO Ezra Chiloba and the eight commissioners for the alleged loss of Sh4 billion.
The IEBC report says that the MPs were mistaken in saying that the IEBC Joint Technical Committee lost Euro 36.99 million in the purchase of the BVR kits and should be surcharged. The IEBC said that the MPs were confusing the Face Technologies quote which was for only 9,750 BVR kits while the 15,000 kits eventually delivered government to government cost Euro56.2 million. The report said that Face Technologies quote would have been slightly more expensive if it was scaled up to the same quantity.
The report said that it was also wrong to say that a tender of Sh825 million for BVR kits was awarded to Face Technologies. The Tender committee only recommended that additional financing be sought if that tender was awarded.
The report defended the decision to directly procure of WAN connectivity from Safaricom saying it was just an extension of the wireless services already paid for by the UNDP.
The report recommended that Euro2.7 million of 'brokerage' fees be recovered from Canadian Commercial Corporation but the IEBC report said that was a matter for teh Treasury as it was G2G transaction.
The IEBC report agreed with the recommendation of the MPs that ICT equipment should be delivered and certified 12 months before elections.
Hassan said that the PAC also ignored the evidence of other IEBC staff. 'Unfortunately, PAC also chose to ignore the responses given by some of the officers who were lucky to appear," Hassan said.
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