MPs have questioned why Central
Bank governor Patrick Njoroge has not
ensured his officers linked to the collapse
of three banks are prosecuted.
Njoroge, who appeared before the
National Assembly Finance Committee
was at pains to convince the MPs
why no CBK officer implicated in the
collapse of Chase, Imperial and Dubai
banks has not been sacked or prosecuted,
almost a year since he assumed
office.
The committee chaired by Ainamoi
MP Benjamin Langat raised concern
that the officers may be interfering
with ongoing forensic audit commissioned
by the CBK, to unearth culprits
who fleeced depositors.
“We thought
in this investigation you could start
with your own house. Keeping the
officers could be interfering with the
investigations,” Langat said.
Nominated MP Johnson Sakaja demanded
that Njoroge should confirm whether
the CBK has ever conducted a
“serious investigation” into its officers.
“I am not saying that CBK employees
were not involved in the collapse
of the banks, but as at now we have no
evidence to sack any officer,” Njoroge
said. “The officers are not going anywhere.
They are going to be in this
country and even if they retire we will
pursue them for prosecution when
there is enough evidence.”
Njoroge was also put to task to explain
why he commissioned an audit
on Chase Bank while it was under receivership.
Langat poked holes into the
audit report on Chase Bank presented
to his committee mid this year, alleging
it had conflict of interest.
“At this point I cannot fully and
satisfactorily answer the question
why I appointed the auditor. Considering
conflict of interest, I thought
there would be firewalls in auditing,”
Njoroge said.
He appeared before the
committee to share findings of the
forensic audit report on the affected
banks.
The CBK governor, however, did not
share the findings with the committee
on grounds it is difficult to come up
with one report for the three banks.
Chase Bank will be pulled out of receivership
next year, Njoroge said.