Broke IEBC on brink of shutdown as it wallows in Sh3.9b debt

What you need to know:

  • The commission owes its creditors more than Sh3.9 billion in unpaid bills from the 2017 General Election.

  • This has adversely affected programmes, including continuous voter registration and by-elections.

  • IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati last month bemoaned the National Treasury’s unexplained delays in releasing money.

The electoral commission’s operations are in danger of a complete shutdown as the National Treasury starves it of cash.

Sources at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) say it has not received any money since April when the Chief Executive Ezra Chiloba was suspended.

Consequently, the commission owes its creditors more than Sh3.9 billion in unpaid bills from the 2017 General Election. This has adversely affected programmes, including continuous voter registration and by-elections.

Many of the creditors have thus refused to offer services to the commission.

PAYBACK

Of the Sh3.9 billion in unpaid bills, there is Sh1.4 billion which “had been processed to the Internet banking”, meaning all approvals had been done.

However, the National Treasury failed to disburse it in what commission insiders see as the Executive’s way of getting back at them for the suspension of Mr Chiloba.

Other pending bills amounting to Sh2.5 billion were still with the directorates and procurements.

The pending bills are mostly related to General Election suppliers, according to an analysis of IEBC’s 2018/19 budget versus pending bills.

UNPAID BILLS

The commission acknowledges that even if the National Treasury were to release the pending bills, which had been processed up to Internet banking, amounting to Sh1.4 billion, “There will be a complete shutdown of the commission operation for the rest of the 2018/19 financial year.”

“It would be impossible to have pending bills paid as a first charge without shutting down the operations of the commission,” the commission states.

The analysis on the pending bills owed to creditors by IEBC, a copy of which the Sunday Nation has obtained, is as correct as at July 31 when acting CEO Hussein Marjan prepared it.

“(The) consequences of the pending bills (is) constrained relationship with the suppliers who have declined to provide critical services to the commission.”

REGISTRATION

Among the suppliers who have refused to continue working with IEBC over the unpaid bills are National Oil Corporation, Oracle Technology Systems Ltd, Safaricom and Airtel, all “who have declined to support the coming by-elections”.

Without the monies, IEBC says it “will not be able to undertake the statutory Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) due to lack of resources.”

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati last month bemoaned the National Treasury’s unexplained delays in releasing money to the commission since April, which coincides with the time Mr Chiloba was sent on compulsory leave.

“The commission has experienced constraints in accessing the Exchequer since April. For example, fully processed payments up to Internet banking stage in Ifmis amounting to Sh1.4 billion was not funded.

UNEXPLAINED

“This means the secretariat will be engaged in a tedious process of reversing the payments, a process that will require additional budgetary allocation in 2018/2019,” Mr Chebukati had in July told the National Assembly's Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.

And in a paid media advert on Friday, Mr Chebukati again complained of the shoestring budget the commission was operating on.

“We are working with the National Treasury and relevant committees of Parliament with the view of enhancing the said budgetary allocation to enable the commission to deliver on its mandate,” he said.

According to IEBC sources, the Executive, through the National Treasury, has become a major player in the infighting at IEBC through such tactics as unexplained delays in disbursing budgeted for and processed payments.

EMOLUMENTS

In addition, after Mr Chiloba was sent on compulsory leave, National Treasury took months to approve Mr Marjan as the accounting officer. Without a designated accounting officer, the commissioner could not access the exchequer from the National Treasury.

Of the Sh1.4 billion that had been processed and was awaiting disbursement, the directorate of legal and compliance was the worst hit as more than Sh270 million that was to be paid to lawyers who represented IEBC in election petitions.

This brings to Sh2.1 billion the legal and compliance directorate has in pending bills, the highest of any IEBC directorates. The directorate of ICT, which was key to the deployment of technology in the 2017 elections, has unpaid bills of Sh944 million.

EDUCATION

The directorate of human resource and administration has pending bills amounting to more than Sh296 million. These include Sh265 million which was at Internet banking stage but not disbursed and another Sh31.4 million in other unpaid bills. The directorate of human resource and administration’s unpaid bills emanate from personnel emoluments, rent, insurance, airtime which certain cadre of staff are entitled to and contracted security guards.

The department of procurement has pending bills amounting to Sh44.8 million, county operations Sh200.9 million, the directorate of voter education and partnerships a total of Sh265.5 million.

EXPENSES

Other directorates and departments with unpaid bills from last financial year are corporate communications affairs (Sh6 million), and voter registration and election operations excluding expenses for by-elections (Sh16.8 million).

Meanwhile, IEBC projected budget for Migori senatorial by-election is Sh230 million but which has not been provided for in the 2018/19 financial year.

The by-election was occasioned by the death of Senator Ben Oluoch Okello in June. The repeat poll is scheduled for October 8.