MPs are demanding a forensic audit of the Sh15 billion fertiliser subsidy programme.
The National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee wants a comprehensive money trail of the billions that were recently allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture for the programme, which is at the heart of President William Ruto's economic transformative agenda.
The special audit should be ready within 30 days.
The lawmakers at the watchdog committee claim the process of identifying suppliers has been rocked by unprecedented pilferages.
“There is even a chance of money laundering; there could be illicit money transfers. A lot of issues are coming in the open about this matter,” MP John Mbadi said.
They want the Auditor General to track all money movements from the ministry to the suppliers and any other transfers thereafter.
“We will not close our eyes to emerging cases of possible corruption. There is a latest report that the money that this Parliament voted in the supplementary budget for the acquisition of subsidised fertiliser that there is a possibility of embezzlement, fraudulent activities having taken place in the process of procurement of the same,” Mbadi said.
“For that reason and because this is a committee that is usually nonpartisan, we took a vote yesterday as a committee that we ask the office of AG to do a special audit on this supplementary budget appropriation of Sh15 billion that Parliament granted the Ministry of Agriculture. We are coming in because this is already an expenditure that has been incurred.”
He was flanked by Mathioya MP Edwin Mugo during the press briefing at Parliament buildings.
The fertiliser subsidy has been at the heart of Ruto’s agenda towards reducing the cost of living in the country.
After doing away with the maize subsidy that was introduced by his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta, the President resorted to subsidising farm inputs for farmers across the country.
Mbadi said his committee will get to the bottom of the matter vowing it will not be business as usual where nothing came out of major sandals even after adducing incriminating evidence.
“Kenya has had so numerous cases of reported scandals which go unpunished. They are investigated forever. You remember we had NYS scandal, we have had cases of Health ministry scandal, Kemsa, and there is no conclusive end to the same,” he said.
“We want this one to be different. We will investigate this matter and have a conclusion and a closure. If there is no scandal we will report back to the people of Kenya and if there will be a scandal we will make our recommendation to Parliament and will be upon Parliament to deal with that recommendation.”
PAC, he noted, will be holding public inquiry on the matter and all those involved in the distribution chain will have their day before the oversight committee.
“We are going to conduct public hearings starting with Ministry of Agriculture which received the funds whether they made transfers to other state agencies like Kenya National Trading Corporation that will now be audit trail and all the officers involved will be invited to appear publicly so that this matter is also settled publicly,” Mbadi said.
Mugo warned that the country risks recording a mega scandal if the controversies surrounding the subsidised fertiliser are not cleared.
“We are committed to reaching to the root cause. The amount involved is huge, we are talking about Sh15 billion. If this matter is not arrested now and we know this will be happening each year then probably we are going to have a bigger scandal,” Mugo said.
The leaders denied that the move is informed by politics saying the watchdog committee remains nonpartisan and only pursue the truth regarding the multibillion-shilling expenditure.
“The committee is nonpartisan, our role is oversight and we are committed to reach to the bottom of this matter,” Mugo said.
“It is a matter that we sat as committee last evening, the motion was moved by Nabii Nabwera (Lugari) and seconded by Mugo and members unanimously agreed. As members of PAC we agreed we concentrate on matters of accountability,” Mbadi added.
