Graft watchdog staff to go home

FILE PHOTO:  Integrity Centre, the building that houses the offices of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.             

   

23 workers were found to be unsuitable for the positions after they were vetted

More than 20 employees of the anti-corruption agency will lose their jobs after they were found to be unfit on issues of integrity.

Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) vice-chairperson Irene Keino said the workers were vetted this week.

Workers found unsuitable, who include senior and middle level staff, have been informed of their fate.

Those deemed unfit were given seven days to appeal to a special team set up at the commission.

 

The agency will now seek fresh applications to fill the 23 vacancies. “We are now very squeezed in terms of staffing,” Ms Keino said.

“If we have a huge investigation like the one we are conducting on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, we would have to reassign staff to the new assignment,” she said.
 

The commission has been investigating the electoral team after the Supreme Court recommended an audit of the procurement of voter equipment that failed in the March 4 General Election.

Ms Keino said the number of workers to be let go could change as some had already lodged appeals against the decision.

The agency had 255 workers, 100 less than those who worked at the now defunct Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission. Of this number, 251 were vetted.

Ms Keino said the commission would await the results of a job evaluation exercise to establish staff needs.
 

Mr Mumo Matemu, who Parliament cleared as chairman of the commission, has yet to take over due to a pending court case challenging his recruitment, leaving only Ms Keino and former Catholic university lecturer Ruth Onsongo, who were sworn in on September 27 last year to run the show.

The vetting was done by two commissioners, representatives from the Attorney-General’s Office and the Institute of Professional Societies of East Africa.
 

The vetting was a requirement of the law setting up the EACC.

All those vetted were recruited by the Kenya Ant-Corruption Commission, but had to go through fresh screening to move to the EACC.
 

Although the law requires that the staff be vetted based on integrity, the commission raised the bar to include issues related to merit.