• Mbaraka also said the antigraft body was faced with constraints in budget barring it from fully executing its mandate.
• "The identified gaps in the law have hampered effective deterrence of corruption and enforcement of integrity bin the public service," he said.
Image: FILE
Overlapping mandates and sibling rivalry among law enforcement agencies are among the setbacks that EACC has faced in effecting its duty.
This was revealed by CEO Twalib Mbarak during the National Assembly induction program.
In the statement released by the Commission on Friday, Twalib said EACC was established under the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which obligates all state parties to establish independent agencies to spearhead the fight against corruption.
He said the presence of several agencies dealing with corruption and economic crimes led to a risk of duplicity and institutional overlaps.
"This is a recipe for operational confusion and other desirable outcomes witnessed in law enforcement," he added.
Mbaraka also said the antigraft body was faced with constraints in budget, barring it from fully executing its mandate.
"The EACC annual budget has stagnated at an average of Sh4 billion for the last five financial years with over 68 per cent going to re-current expenditure," he said.
"This has made it difficult to implement new anti-corruption initiatives despite changing patterns and trends of corruption."
He said the Commission recovers and returns to the public corruptly acquired assets approximated at Sh6 billion and disrupts potential loss of public funds amounting to approximately Sh10 billion in a year.
Mbarak further said the Commission has identified legal gaps in the framework.
He added that they had submitted proposals to deal with the same to the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) of the National Assembly and Office of the Attorney General.
"The identified gaps in the law have hampered effective deterrence of corruption and enforcement of integrity bin the public service," he said.
He urged the NA to be haste in reviewing the proposals so as to help strengthen the fight against corruption.
Some of the areas proposed for legislative review include mechanisms for enforcement of Chapter 6 of the Constitution, lifestyle audits, declaration of income, assets and liabilities by all public officials.
Others include empowerment of EACC to enforce Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering (POCAMLA) for ease of recovery of assets acquired through money laundering.
"One of the relevant Bills pending action by the National Assembly is the Conflict of Interest Bill, 2019," the statement said.