State opens fresh search for Auditor-General after flop

Persons interested in the Auditor-General job have two weeks to send in applications, an indication of the government’s urgency to fill the position following a botched initial recruitment process.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has readvertised the position after the Public Service Commission (PSC) failed to get a suitable candidate in the earlier recruitment effort.

The PSC said last week none of the 17 shortlisted candidates had met the threshold to replace former Auditor-General Edward Ouko whose term expired in August.

“I Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya…announce a vacancy in the position of the Auditor General and invite applications from qualified persons for nomination for appointment to the office,” said the Presidency in the advertisement in the media yesterday.

Applicants are expected to have presented their papers by December 30, pushing the hiring into the first quarter of next year.

The Auditor-General’s office is among the most independent with legal insulation from interference from any arm of the government.

The position had attracted 70 applicants, with questions over how so many applicants could end up being deemed unsuitable, and whether the fresh round of recruitment may also fail to yield a suitable candidate.

Among those that made the shortlist in the first round of recruitment for the position were nine employees at the Auditor-General’s office.

They included deputy Auditors-General David Gichana, Alex Rugera, Silvester Kiini, William Agunda, Edwin Kamar and directors Elizabeth Nguringa, Meshack Onyango, Nancy Gathungu, and Dennis Theuri.

Others were Kitonyo Peter, Leonard Rang’ala, Francis Kigo, Moses Edwin, Abdullahi Idris, David Muchoki Tulula Joseph, and Calistus Wekesa.

PSC chairman Stephen Kirago said a decision for re-advertisement of the position was arrived at in consultation with the Office of the President.

The hunt for Mr Ouko’s replacement has run beyond the threshold prescribed in law, complicating the financial reporting of State corporations whose books of account must be audited by the office before being published.

The likes of Central Bank of Kenya and Kenya Electricity Generating Company have been unable to submit their audited books of accounts to Parliament due to the lack of a substantive State audit head.

Last month, acting Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani, in a letter to National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, cited the vacancy in the National Audit Office for the Central Bank’s failure to submit certified financial statements for 2018/19.