DPP, EACC war over new offices ends

Halakhe Waqo, EACC Chief Executive. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By EDWIN MUTAI

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Summary

• The National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs committee has asked the EACC to abandon the joint acquisition plan and search for its own building.
• The Treasury had allocated the EACC the Sh2.7 billion to purchase a building that would house the commission and the DPP.
• The Sh1 billion is being taken from funds that had been allocated to the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC).

Parliament has split the Sh2.7 billion it had set aside for the purchase of an office block to house the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to calm tensions between the two over who controls the funds.

The National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs committee has asked the EACC to abandon the joint acquisition plan and search for its own building as the committee looks for funds to buy a separate building for the DPP.

Committee chairman Samuel Chepkonga said the decision to split the funds was made to prevent escalation of tensions that saw the DPP lodge a protest with the Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) challenging the EACC’s control of the funds.

“The DPP claimed he is senior to EACC. I discussed the matter with Treasury secretary Henry Rotich and told Mr (Halakhe) Waqo (the EACC chief executive) to think of going it alone because the DPP (Keriako Tobiko) was very upset,” Mr Chepkonga said.

The Treasury had allocated the EACC the Sh2.7 billion to purchase a building that would house the commission and the DPP. The money was allocated in two tranches, starting with Sh1.268 billion in the current budget and Sh500 million in the next.

The committee directed the EACC chief executive to proceed and procure a separate office block for the commission at a price not exceeding Sh1.7 billion.

The commission had also opposed the joint acquisition arguing that it would complicate the process given the amount of space required to accommodate the two independent offices.

“The price for premises suitable for EACC alone would be lower and this can be settled in a shorter time,” Mr Waqo said.

Mr Chepkonga said the DPP would get Sh1 billion to purchase its own offices.

READ: Tobiko pushes for modern lab, secure offices

The Sh1 billion is being taken from funds that had been allocated to the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) to purchase a 40-acre piece of land for expansion of the Karen-based Centre for Parliamentary Studies and Training (CPST).

Mr Waqo said the EACC was willing to surrender the five-acre Karen plot in exchange for funds that the PSC has offered to forfeit.

He said the EACC purchased the Karen land in 2005 for purposes of developing its headquarters but it was found inaccessible to members of the public and critical stakeholders, including courts.

Mr Waqo said efforts to acquire joint headquarters for the two agencies had suffered several setbacks after the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) reneged on an earlier offer to sell its Parking Silo Office Block to the agencies at a cost of Sh1 billion. The NSSF later gave a new offer of Sh1.3 billion, leading to termination of negotiations.

The commission also terminated negotiations to acquire Flamingo Towers after the vendor demanded that the commission pay VAT over and above the negotiated price of Sh2.68 billion. 

This would have brought the total cost of the building to Sh3.1 billion, against the government valuation of Sh2.4 billion.