President William Ruto has announced that his new broad-based Cabinet will focus on enhancing accountability and promoting responsibility for the use of public resources.
Speaking on Wednesday during the swearing-in of Cabinet Secretaries at State House Nairobi, Ruto said the Cabinet will introduce a levy against any accounting officer or other public officer who is involved in the loss of public resources.
“To enhance accountability and promote responsibility for the use of public resources, we shall introduce measures to levy a surcharge against any accounting officer or other public officer who has, by their actions or omissions, occasioned loss of public resources in accordance with Articles 226(5), 201(d); and 232(b) of the Constitution,” said Ruto.
The Head of State mentioned that the government will implement a Unified Personal Identification system for all personnel working across all the arms of government, including constitutional commissions in a move to eliminate the ‘ghost worker’ payroll fraud at all levels of Government.
Ruto also said the Cabinet shall introduce a legal and institutional framework for mandatory and continuous vetting of all public officers.
“The same framework will provide the repository of wealth declarations across the entirety of Government under one office,” said Ruto.
The President also stressed that his government aims to facilitate the prompt investigation and prosecution of all crimes related to corruption and economic crimes by amending relevant legislation, including laws such as the Evidence Act and the Criminal Procedure Code, and providing for their determination within 6 months.
“We believe that our war on corruption will be significantly boosted by measures to make it easier and safer for citizens and whistle-blowers to come forward and report corruption and economic crimes,” Ruto stated.
Further, he noted that the Cabinet will exploit the power of information and communication technology to radically diminish opportunities for corruption, conflict of interest, and abuse of office by digitizing procurement and making it open and transparent.
