VIP travel policy archaic, House team told

Office of Deputy President Chief of Staff Marianne Kitany during a Parliamentary Accounts Committee hearing, November 7, 2013. DIANA NGILA 

 

By JOHN NGIRACHU
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The government policy for the travel of VIPs is archaic and not suited to the current circumstances; a senior official at Deputy President William Ruto’s office has told a parliamentary committee.

Marianne Kitany, Mr Ruto’s Chief of Staff, told the Public Accounts Committee the Foreign Affairs


ministry is revising the policy and has been interviewing certain civil servants in the process.

“There is need to develop a comprehensive travel policy for government dignitaries and official functions. It is my understanding that the current policy on the same is archaic and not suited to the current circumstances,” said Ms Kitany.

She said the review began the Auditor-General presented the inconclusive report on the special audit of the process through which a jet was hired for Mr Ruto’s tour of four African countries in May.

Like two other officers before her, Ms Kitany soon ran into trouble when she claimed that the loss of Local Service Orders from the book used in the transaction was under investigation.

(Read: Officials differ on lost Ruto jet documents)

She was also taken to task for her robust defence of the procurement of the jet despite the various irregularities pointed out by auditors and the mystery of the missing LSOs.

Ms Kitany claimed that the office has followed the correct procedure in trying to establish the whereabouts of the missing LSOs and warning the public about it by advertising.

One of the missing LSOs was found but only Simon Okoth, who used to work in the procurement office, was the only person who knew that. It was included in the advertisement reporting the lost LSOs.

AUDITORS MADE QUERIES

The committee has established that despite claims by other civil servants that an internal memo on the loss was made on May 19, that is untrue as the loss was only discovered after auditors made queries.

“This committee is concerned that you found the LSOs missing, you advertised in the newspapers and there is no inquiry of any kind,” said committee chairman Ababu Namwamba.

He said the committee found it curious that Mr Okoth, who was the custodian of the LSO booklet and the register used to record transactions in it, was never investigated in any way.

Ms Kitany stuck to the script and said she had had the Finance Officer, the head of procurement and the principal administration secretary meet in her office when the loss was discovered.

She said the investigations over the matter would continue, but Mr Namwamba stopped her in her tracks

“Don’t insult the intelligence of this committee. The committee knows there has been no inquiry,” he said.

 

The missing papers are of interest to auditors because they were for the month of May just before the trip to Congo-Brazaville, Gabon, Nigeria and Ghana.

“There is a possibility of a link between the missing LSOs and the invoice that appeared in the Daily Nation of May 23. The serial members of the missing LSOs in relation to the one that was eventually paid shows that the transaction was carried out at about the same time,” the Auditor General said in his report.

Manson Nyamweya (South Mugirango, ODM) said some of the three companies that bid for the supply of the jet had not included Value Added Tax in their quotation and this made their prices look lower.