Stung by intense criticism over new corruption allegations, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki on Thursday ordered anti-graft officials to examine a cancelled suspect passport deal with a French firm.
Faced with mounting concerns over his government’s commitment to fighting corruption — including the suspension of millions of dollars in United States aid and threats of similar action from other donors — Kibaki forwarded the contract to an anti-graft panel for review and possible criminal action.
The president ”has today instructed that an audit report on the procurement of security projects in the country be handed over to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission [KACC] for appropriate action”, his office said in a statement.
”The audit report has raised certain queries which need to be looked into,” it said 24 hours after the European Union and Japan warned endemic corruption in Kenya must be addressed and two days after the US aid suspension.
The statement said Kibaki has instructed the KACC ”to move with speed and act appropriately on the report to ensure that there is no loss of government funds, and necessary action is taken”.
It added that the president has created a new oversight committee to look into security projects and that such items will be subjected to additional scrutiny in the bidding process.
The audit of Kenya’s contract bidding procedure for security projects was ordered last year after lawmakers cried foul over a $34-million passport deal awarded to Paris-based Groupe Francois-Charles Oberthur Fiduciaire in 2003.
Legislators said the company — which was to deliver comprehensive, high-security immigration systems and new-generation passports and visas to Kenya — had replaced, without competitive bidding, a more modest tender at less than a third of the price.
The French firm maintained it had done nothing wrong but the contract was cancelled in May 2004 and Kibaki’s government launched a probe that resulted in the sacking of four senior government officials.
However, the case has not progressed since then until Thursday, and Kibaki’s order came amid a firestorm of criticism over his failure to live up to campaign pledges and vows to donors to stamp out rampant corruption.
Last week, the British High Commissioner to Kenya, Edward Clay, launched the opening salvo in the battle, slamming Kibaki’s government for failing to stop ”massive looting” of public funds.
He said he has handed over a dossier of 20 dubious contracts and crooked procurement ventures to authorities and maintained that Kibaki’s government has lost millions through corruption since it came to power on an anti-graft platform in January 2003.
Then, on Monday, the nation’s top anti-corruption adviser resigned in a move that was followed 24 hours later by the suspension of about $2,5-million in US aid to Kenya earmarked for the fight against graft.
On Wednesday, the EU, Kenya’s largest collective donor, and Japan warned that their aid might be jeopardised by the government’s inability or unwillingness to fight graft.
In a statement, EU embassies and the European Commission delegation in Nairobi slammed Kibaki’s administration for a ”lack of good governance within the government of Kenya” and said decisions on assistance will depend on its willingness to address those concerns.
Despite Kibaki’s pledges to clamp down on graft, donors estimate graft may have cost Kenya up to a billion dollars since 2002, nearly a fifth of the country’s 2004/05 official state Budget of about $5,5-billion.
Kenyan officials have angrily denied they are turning a blind eye to corruption and on Wednesday, Minister of Justice Kiraitu Murungi defended the government’s record. — Sapa-AFP