Kenya’s Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) has summoned the nations top Treasury chiefs to shed light on how the Sh289 billion Eurobond was spent.
They include Treasury CS Henry Rotich as well as Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge who heads the ministry that was responsible in floating the Eurobond.
“The response by the officers so far invited has been positive and the commission expects that the local aspects on the investigations will speedily be concluded,” EACC Chief Executive Officer Halakhe Waqo said in a statement.
Although the EACC statement did not expressly mention the state officials summoned, an official there confirmed to Capital FM News that among those summoned is the CS and the PS, among other officials at the ministry and other government departments that handled the Eurobond.
The commission has also urged anyone with information on the alleged Eurobond scandal to volunteer, so as to aid the ongoing investigations prompted by claims by CORD leader Raila Odinga and other opposition leaders that the money may have been misappropriated.
“The information obtained shall be solely be used for the purposes of investigation in relation to the matter and will be treated with the utmost confidentiality,” the EACC statement said.
The EACC plea came hours after the CORD leader dismissed figures released by the treasury outlining how the money was spent.
While the Treasury CS insists the money was disbursed to various Ministries for key projects, Raila now wants a detailed explanation on the projects carried out using the Eurobond.
“We are gratified to note that the Government has confirmed receipt of all the Eurobond proceeds. Other than this, the document does not respond to our questions. If anything, it reinforces our concern that this is a huge scam,” the opposition leader stated, after declining to honour an invitation by the Treasury to furnish him with all the information he had asked for.
He went on to point out that , “The only item that the Eurobond proceeds financed in FY 2014/15 as per the National Treasury’s financial report is external debt amortization (repayment of principal) to the tune of Sh75 billion. This and the Sh35 billion the National Treasury records as spent in FY 2013/14 totals Sh110 billion, leaving Sh140 billion unaccounted for.”
The opposition leader had asked the National Treasury to explain the “glaring accounting anomalies”
Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko has given state agencies investigating the matter until next week to send a file to him for further action.
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Source: Capitalfm