Mueke promises transparency at Ministry of Sports
President William Ruto’s nominee for the position of Principal Secretary in the State Department of Sports Jonathan Mueke yesterdaay promised to sanitise and bring order, particularly in areas of spending and planning.
The former Nairobi Deputy Governor spoke yesterday when he appeared before the National Assembly’s Committee on Sports and Culture chaired by Webuye East Member of Parliament Dan Wanyama for vetting.
Mueke said if approved by Parliament, he would ensure there was value for money in all ministrry acttivities.
“Definitely if approved and cleared for the appointment, the first order of business during the handover with my predecessor is to ensure that we do an audit on all spends.
“Indeed just like other departments, we have an outcry of pending bills so I will have to read the report in my Ministry and understand the genesis of the issues arising.
“We will want to get an idea of how some of these bills were incurred and if the contracts were right and the tendering processes were up to par.
“I mean if goods and services were procured as per the requirements of the deals, then payment needed to have been updated.
General elections
“So for us, these pending bills are a key priority even in the short term because really we do not want to be a burden to our suppliers,” added Mueke who unsuccessfully ran for the Kitui gubernatorial seat in the August 9 General-Election.
While answering a question on stadia posed by Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga, Mueke promised to assess the procurement processes to find out why a lot of facilities were left hanging by the previous regime.
“This is actually a pressing issue where a lot of questions have been asked and concerns raised.
“I am aware that the Ministry had begun within one financial year to build 11 stadia across the country which did not materialize because of the unavailability of funds.
Sports infrastructure
“I think in the future we must be better at planning so that we do not end up ambitious yet find ourselves with incomplete work.
“It is a tall order for such huge projects to be completed in one calendar and therefore I commit to ensuring that while we plan sports infrastructure, we have to do that on a need basis where priorities have to be real,” he added while proposing a five-year investment plan which will have all stakeholders on-board to agree on budget, priority and standards.
Mueke also pledged to fight the doping menace by developing a fund structure to help the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) with its mandate proper.
“We need to ensure that all relevant government agencies are supporting the war on doping including ADAK, so we will be tabling to this Committee our plans and proposals, especially on funding.
“We are looking at areas of incorporating students, managers, coaches and athletes so that everyone is on the same page with regard to this menace.
“We have told the athletics world that doping is not state-sponsored because we are a proud and clean country.
“We will continuously put out the message to our athletes that there can be no shortcuts because even under our laws, these are crimes that can land you in trouble,” Mueke said.
