Uhuru takes the stand as chickens come home to roost

By David Ochami Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta will on Tuesday face Parliament’s Budget Committee to answer questions over budget making and disbursement of finances.
Uhuru has been accused by the Constitution Implementation Commission (CIC) of breaching the constitution by failing to present budget estimates to the budget committee on April 30.
The Minister has instead promised to hand over the estimates this week, before reading the annual budget estimates of revenue and expenditure for the 2011/2012 financial year on June 8.
The CIC termed Uhuru’s move as irregular, because he has already breached article 221 of the new Constitution.
On Tuesday, Uhuru is supposed to comply with the Speaker’s directive to explain the discrepancy between the minister’s revenue collections for the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 financial years, and those recorded by the Controller and Auditor General.
According to Gwasi MP, John Mbadi, who raised the question in Parliament in April, only three out of fourteen revenue accounts for the 2007/2008 financial year were audited by the Auditor General. The Auditor General also certified only a single minor revenue account for the following financial year.
It is estimated that all the revenue collected in the uncertified revenue accounts for successive financial years is Sh700 billion.
Sh106 billionWhen the Auditor General audited the 20072008 financial year and issued a certificate in June 2009, he found that Treasury collected Sh516 billion, while the minister said Sh410 billion was collected for the same financial year.
The MP has challenged the minister to explain to Parliament the rationale for the Sh106 billion difference.
The question has been pending in Parliament since April, when the Minister was also expected to table estimates for the 2011/2012 budget, in line with Article 221 of the new Constitution, which he has not done, and is subject for his meeting with the Budget Committee on Tuesday.The Minister may also be taken through the infamous Sh10 billion error in the budget last year.
The minister will also have to answer questions on the appointment of an independent auditor to determine how original estimates in the substantive budget changed at the supplementary budget.
The appointment was to be undertaken by the Treasury and Parliament’s Budget and Finance committees. But the audit was never reported to Parliament, according to Gwassi MP, John Mbadi, who sits on the Budget Committee, and now says the minister should not be allowed to read the 2011/2012 budget as promised on June 8.
Evasive manoeuvres
In May, Finance Assistant minister, Oburu Oginga, attempted to evade Mbadi’s question by telling Parliament that the Sh106 billion discrepancy was under probe by the Public Accounts Committee.
However, it turned out that PAC had already published a report for the contentious financial year, only mentioning the matter in slight depth.
Last Thursday, Speaker Kenneth Marende ruled that the minister must explain this matter on Tuesday when he also faces the Budget Committee, whose members also have unfinished business with him over CDF, and overall compliance with the Fiscal Management Act of 2009.
Already many members of the Budget Committee have joined the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) to say Uhuru breached Article 221 of the Constitution.