Only 560 State staff receive nod to run foreign accounts

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission offices in Nairobi. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By EDWIN MUTAI
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Summary

• The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), in a status report on the fight against corruption, said the public officers were cleared in the past five years.
• Article 76(2) of the Constitution provides that public officers must not open or continue operating a bank account outside Kenya without approval from EACC.
• In 2016, the EACC announced that it rejected applications of more than 146 government employees who sought permission to operate bank accounts outside Kenya.

Only 560 government employees have been cleared to operate bank accounts outside Kenya, highlighting the tight measures by anti-graft agency to plug a loophole that public officials use to steal and stash billions of shillings abroad.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), in a status report on the fight against corruption, said the public officers were cleared in the past five years.

Article 76(2) of the Constitution provides that public officers must not open or continue operating a bank account outside Kenya without approval from EACC.

In 2016, the EACC announced that it rejected applications of more than 146 government employees who sought permission to operate bank accounts outside Kenya.

The rejection was mainly because the State officers submitted incomplete applications and failed to make full disclosures.

Those rejected represent nearly a third of the total 450 applications that the EACC received in the year to June 2015. Of these, 304 were approved.

Former EACC chief executive Halakhe Waqo said of the total approved, 277 were for officers working in Kenyan diplomatic missions abroad while the remaining 27 were public officers based in Kenya.

Payment of school fees abroad, receiving salaries and business payments were some of the reasons given by the non-diplomatic applicants.

The number of public officials allowed to run bank accounts outside Kenya has now risen from 367 as at end of January 2016.

Those okayed to operate foreign bank accounts are required to submit annual statements to EACC showing all transactions, according to the Leadership and Integrity Act (2012).

Public officials who fail to declare ownership of a bank account outside Kenya face a jail term of three years and a fine of Sh5 million, says the Leadership and Integrity Act.