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The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has embarked on the establishment of corruption prevention committee in the counties to scale up the fight against graft, promote ethics and integrity in the devolved units.
The commission jointly with GIZ- Good Governance programme settled on six counties including Siaya, Vihiga, Kisumu, Elgeyo Marakwet, Bungoma and Kakamega for the pilot of CPC.
Commissioner John Ogallo said since the inception of devolution, the EACC has continued to partner with county governments through the Council of Governors towards fighting corruption.
Ogallo said the commission in collaboration with the council focuses on capacity building, development of codes of ethics and conduct, systems reviews, corruption risk assessments and advisories on corruption prevention.
He said the anti-corruption efforts put in place by the commission were aimed at strengthening systems, practices and processes in the operations of county governments for effective and efficient delivery of services to the citizens.
He spoke when they paid a courtesy call to Kisumu county government on the commissioning of the CPC guidelines on the establishment and operationalisation of the teams on Thursday.
The commissioner presented the guideline document to county officials. Present were acting county secretary Judith Oluoch, county attorney and advocate Ouma Njoga and county executives.
“The guideline marks a milestone in efforts towards corruption prevention as we embark on the operationalisation of the manuals on the CPC,” Ogallo said.
The guidelines provide a systematic approach to public entities by standardising the establishment, operation, composition, roles and responsibilities of CPC in public and private sector institutions.
It also provides a road map for the appointment, training, roles and responsibilities of IAOs, target management and staff of public entities in mainstreaming corruption prevention and promotion of ethics and integrity.
The committee is chaired by the governor with deputy governor, county executives and county secretary as members.
The CPC are mandated to develop, implement, review and monitor corruption prevention framework (corruption prevention policy, whistle blowing protection mechanism, gifts and conflict of interest registers, codes of conduct and ethics and reporting mechanisms).
The committee also prepares an annual corruption prevention plan, coordinates bribery and corruption risk assessment and management and handles complaints on alleged corruption and unethical conduct.
The CPC also coordinates preparation and submission of quarterly reports to the commission, identifies and recommends training needs on ethics, integrity and anti-corruption.
Besides coordination, the CPC has the responsibility to collaborate and cooperate with anti-corruption stakeholders and supervise activities of the integrity assurance officers.
The committee will further monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of anti-corruption initiatives.
Ogallo said the training manual for CPC has been developed to provide a standardised approach to the training of corruption prevention committees.
“The training of CPC is designed to build institutional capacity in corruption prevention, impart knowledge on ethics, integrity and anti-corruption for attitude change, mainstream corruption prevention,” Ogallo said.
It also outlined the support of staff in public and private institutions in the fight against corruption. The CPC training will be implemented in three days and the commission will continuously monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the CPC in executing its mandate.
Ogallo reiterated that the commission was committed to strengthening collaboration and partnership aimed at building the capacity of the counties in the promotion of ethics, integrity and good governance in the counties.
He urged county officials to undertake their responsibilities of serving citizens with a high level of integrity devoid of any malpractice to help safeguard public resources.
The commissioner cited cases of malpractices in employment and ghost workers in counties which the commission was investigating.
“Once the investigations are completed you will see action taken. The EACC is involved in the probing of various cases in Kisumu and Siaya counties. The ongoing investigations will be cleared for prosecution,” Ogallo said.
