- According to its 2016 human resource manual, the agency is supposed to have 296 staff members.
- However, the audit found that it currently has a paltry 109 staff, creating a gaping hole of 187 staff.
Image: FILE
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has put the Witness Protection Agency on the spot over misuse of millions on allowances.
The auditor general said the agency contravened its own human resource guidelines to flush down some Sh108 million on housing and duty allowances to its top brass in an irregular manner.
According to statements forwarded to her office, the agency showed that its employees cost in the last financial year was, “Sh339,263,697 out of which an amount of Sh108,491,060 relates to housing benefits and allowances."
But part of this was Sh2,498,480 in respect to special duty allowance paid to various officers for more than six months.
The report said the payment of the special duty allowance was irregular as it contravened section 6.10.3 of the agency’s Human Resource Policy Manual.
The manual states that “Special Duty Allowance will not be granted for more than six consecutive months”, and that during that period, arrangements should be made to fill the higher post in substantive capacity.
“Further review of records revealed that renewal of extensions for payment of special duty allowance were issued every six months dating back from the year 2017 to 2021,” the report reads.
The auditor also flagged what the report calls a massive understaffing in the agency, meaning that the entity is operating below its capacity, thereby not meeting it mandate of protecting vulnerable witnesses in crucial cases.
According to its 2016 human resource manual, the agency is supposed to have 296 staff members.
However, the audit found that it currently has a paltry 109 staff, creating a gaping hole of 187 staff.
“The under staffing may hinder effective delivery of services by the Agency,” the report reads.
The agency was formed in 2008 and has largely been dependent on technical support from development partners, including the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
It provides special protection to threatened or intimidated witnesses to ensure their security and welfare is guaranteed when testifying in court.
The technical assistance it gets from the UNODC is funded by the European Union channeled through the legal aid project dubbed 'PLEAD'.
The dependence on donor funding could partially explain the massive understaffing flagged by the auditor general.
Observers, however, say that the dependence could also imply state neglect of the crucial agency in the criminal justice sector.
The agency's director Alice Ondieki told the press last October that the agency was suffering from acute underfunding, making its existence virtually meaningless.
Ondieki said that a total of 720 witnesses have been admitted into the protection programme since its inception over a decade ago.
The director further said the entity spends Sh2.5 million to Sh3 million per witness per year.
The technical help it receives from UNODC is in the form of development of standard operating procedures and policies.
Training of its technical staff and deployment of the equipment it needs also form part of the support portfolio.
(edited by Amol Awuor)