Githu blames Macharia for mess in medical equipment leasing
Hillary Mageka@hillarymageka
Former Attorney-General Githu Muigai yesterday accused Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia of bungling the multi-billion-shilling health Managed Equipment Services (MES) programme.
Appearing before an ad hoc Senate committee, Githu claimed Macharia, then serving as Health CS, and his then Principal Secretary Khadijah Kassachon, neither followed his legal advice nor presented the contracts for the project for him to sign off.
In a startling revelation, Githu surprised senators when he told them that by the time he left office in 2018, he had not seen the final contracts signed between the government and five international companies involved in the programme.
Asked whether Macharia and Kassachon violated the law by going ahead to execute the contracts on behalf of the government without his involvement, Githu was non-committal, only maintaining that the duo failed to follow the laid-down procedures in the execution of government contracts.
“Attorney-General Emeritus, failure to comply with the law is itself an irregularity, did the ministry violate the law?” Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula asked.
“They did not violate the law, they only failed to follow the normal and standard procedures,” Githu responded.
“They only bungled clear guidelines of bringing the contracts for sign-off by the State Law Office,” he added.
He lamented that some ministries always overlooked his office as chief legal adviser of the government when executing contracts, some running into billions of shillings.
He would only come to know of such contracts when the concerned ministry sought his consent for Treasury to release money.
The MES contract was initially valued at Sh38 billion but the cost was later revised to about Sh63 billion.
The programme has been muddled in controversy since its launch in 2015, with county governments accusing the national government of imposing it on them against their wishes.
“Mr AG, would you be surprised that the contract was varied from the initial Sh38 billion to Sh63 billion, ignoring your office?” Wetangula charged.
“I am very surprised that any government officer would want to execute a document that has not been sanctioned by the chief legal adviser of government,” Githu responded.
Binding contracts
The former AG who was at pains to convince the Senate team why he gave the ministry the greenlight to engage and sign contracts with the five international firms, said he only allowed the ministry to sign pre-contracts with the contractors on February 6, 2015, at State House.
Thereafter, the ministry was expected to enter into further negotiations and send the documents to the AG’s office for review before signing the final and binding contracts, Githu explained.
“The greenlight was for the ministry to go back and negotiate the final contract, this meant they will not sign them, they will negotiate with the vendors.
After they finish negotiating them, they would send them to me for review,” he observed.
“They never complied with that,” Githu insisted, referring to Macharia and Kassachon.
However, senators Stewart Madzayo (Kilifi), Enock Wambua (Kitui) and Wetang’ula demanded to know what exactly the office of the AG wanted to verify yet there was an express letter from him allowing the ministry to sign the contracts on February 6.
“Where in this letter is your express wording that what was being signed on February 6 was a ceremony? You have clearly indicated that they sign the contracts,” Wetang’ula said.
“What are you saying you want to review? Isn’t the contract concluded? And the question we are asking is, what are you reviewing?
It is finalised. It is concluded. It is signed. What are you reviewing?” Wambua asked.
Own volition
Githu said his work as chief legal adviser of the government was not to supervise ministries and its agencies but to offer legal advice to his client, the government.
“The AG is an adviser, it is very difficult to convert him to supervisor of government, he advises ministries please do this, ensure this is done and so on, but you cannot go there to make sure they have done it,” a visibly irritated Githu explained.
“On February 6, they signed the pre-contract. The one intended to show they would be contracting. The one that would be caught on camera and so on,” he added.
He said upon realising that the MES contracts had been duly executed, the State Law Office on its own volition wrote to the ministry contesting the manner in which the contracts were being implemented.
Today, the committee is expected to grill former Health Cabinet Secretary Dr Cleopa Mailu, Kenya’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, Switzerland. It was during Mailu’s tenure the MES contracts were varied, shifting the figures from Sh28 billion to Sh63 billion
