Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati is yet again in trouble over the last past election’s budget.
The IEBC boss will today be questioned by MPs over expenditures that amounted to Sh9.2 billion.
This came after a report from the auditor general on the expenditure of the money meant for an election budget.
Auditor General Edward Ouko raised audit queries about key contracts the commission awarded over 10 months of last year.
Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman the Ugunja Member of Parliament Opiyo Wandayi said the committee has set aside two days to question the IEBC team.
If necessary, he said, they could extend questioning to Thursday.
Wandayi and his PAC team have backed to the city from Kisumu where the watchdog agency had retreated over the weekend to write reports on the expenditure by government agencies for 2014-15 and part of 2015-16 financial years.
Chebukati is expected along with the two other remaining commissioners, Abdi Guliye and Boya Molu, as well as acting CEO Marjan Hussein.
The three are expected to tell the committee how the money allocated to IEBC was spent and individuals involved in handling expenditures.
Wandayi said sacked CEO Ezra Chiloba has not been invited but the committee will decide whether to invite him or not.
An internal audit report on IEBC had raised questions about the payment of Sh249.3 million for the supply, installation and support of the IEBC primary and secondary data centre equipment.
The initial budget was only Sh130 million, meaning the contract amount shot up by 92 per cent.
The Chairman is also expected to shed more light over the acquisition of 42,927 presidential ballot boxes at Ksh2,500 instead of Ksh2,250, as well as the mismanagement of nearly 1,000 modems fully loaded with data bundles.
The committee also revealed that it’s giving the matter precedence after which they will publish the findings 10 days after the Chebukati hearing.
This is just part of the problems in the embattled body, since it started sacking its top officials.
Do you think Chebukati’s grilling will bring sanity at the body, or rather help recover the lost billions?
