President Uhuru Kenyatta has appointed Mutua Kilaka chairman of the selection panel for recruitment of an Auditor General.
The move marked a second attempt by the appointing authority to fill the post which has been vacant since Edward Ouko left last August.
President Kenyatta further named Beatrice Gathirwa, Njeri Wachira, Veronica Birgen, Edwin Makori, Ceasar Barare, and Eric Gumbo as members of the panel.
Kilaka was a former Principal Administrative Secretary at the National Treasury and has wide experience in finance.
He was a Finance Secretary in former President Mwai Kibaki’s administration prior to his appointment by the Kenyatta administration until 2018.
Kilaka was also a member of the Postal Corporation of Kenya and has also served in the NSSF board of trustees.
He was also on the Bamburi Cment board, but left in 2014 in line with the requirements of the Public Officer Ethics Act.
The team appointed by Uhuru is expected to call for fresh applications from interested persons after the High court nullified the process which was led by former Deloitte MD Sammy Onyango.
The former panel concluded that they did not get a suitable candidate to replace Ouko, citing integrity issues touching on the top candidate.
Rights Activist Okiya Omtatah challenged the process and secured orders compelling the government to conduct fresh interviews.
Onyango denied claims “there was undue pressure on the team to get a candidate from the correct quarters”.
Of the 17 applicants, he said none fit the bill to step in Ouko’s shoes, adding that the candidate who scored above 70 per cent failed the integrity test.
The panel chairman said two others got 65 and 62 per cent, hence did not reach the pass mark of 70 per cent.
“We asked other agencies for further information on the individuals. The top candidate did not have a practicing certificate and was not a member of good standing at ICPAK,” Onyango said.
A Joint Parliamentary Committee probed the delay in appointing an Auditor General. The Public Investments Committee (PIC), Public Accounts Committee (PAC), and Special Funds Committee called for urgency.
MPs seized of the matter following a request by Treasury CS Ukur Yatani for extension of time for entities to present their audited reports to Parliament.
The reports were supposed to be in by December 31 last year – being six months after the end of the financial period.
Reports of the Central Bank of Kenya, Kenya Power, KenGen, East African Portland Cement, Capital Markets Authority, and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) are among those affected.
The affected semi-autonomous agencies are unable to pay dividends to their shareholders since only a substantive auditor can express an opinion on their books.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) is required to advertise a call for applications within 14 days.
The names are thereafter published in a Gazette notice and a selection panel formed by the President to settle on three qualified applicants.
The panel is expected to conduct the interviews in public, settle on three names to send to the President as well as submit the scores to Parliament.
The President is required to select one person and forward his/her name to the National Assembly for approval within three days.
The Public Audit Act has no clear provisions for a transition unless the previous office holder dies, resigns, or is removed.
Ouko, when leaving in August last year, faulted this arrangement.
He said that other than creating a void in the crucial office, it does not guarantee a proper handover.