E-Clips:- Business Pictorial - I Am Not Quitting, Declares Mwiraria

Finance minister David Mwiraria yesterday said he would not resign over the Sh7 billion Anglo Leasing scandals, and accused a Parliamentary team that put the blame on him of trying to tarnish his name.Mwiraria, together with top government officials, met with representatives of donor organisations to discuss the scandals yesterday afternoon.

"A society in which people want to accuse others wrongly is not civilised. If I had done anything wrong, I would have resigned," Mwiraria said at a news conference in his Nairobi offices yesterday.And for the second time, the Treasury chief blamed his sacked PS Joseph Magari on whose advice he approved a single-sourcing tender award to the shadowy firm for the supply of terrorist-proof passports at a cost of Sh2.7 billion.The Public Accounts Committee’s report says Mwiraria was well briefed by his officials and was satisfied with the way they handled the transactions.

The watchdog said ministers must be held responsible for any fraud done by their accounting officers.Sources within the Treasury revealed that the minister called the press conference following renewed donor pressure for full investigations and disclosure in the morning, culminating in a boardroom meeting with Mwiraria in the afternoon.

Given the grave nature of the scandal and rising perception that the government was not fighting emerging corruption, Mwiraria met with Ethics and Governance PS John Githongo, the acting Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission Director Gideon Mutua and the newly-appointed government spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua to strategise on how to handle the donor and public backlash.

The meeting took off amid speculation within government circles that heads would roll before Monday, with at least one or two court appearances involving those mentioned, to assuage public fears that President Kibaki’s administration is no longer keen on fighting corruption in high levels.Yesterday, Mwiraria detailed the events of November 20, last year, when Magari entered his office and implored upon the minister to approve the passports deal as it was urgent.

"I was sitting in my office in the evening when Magari came in with a sense of urgency and insisted it was a high-priority project. He pulled out a file from the rest and gave it to me and I gave the authority in good faith," he said.Excerpts from minutes given to him by Magari reveal that the Attorney-General’s Chambers gave legal opinion on Anglo Leasing’s financial agreement and necessary revisions were made.

The particular minute said of Anglo Leasing: "The systems provider is one of the reputable outstanding suppliers of security printing and systems services on a global basis and brings significant experience in currency, passports, visas and other security documents on world-wide basis, including Africa and this region."

But Mwiraria insisted that he did not know the owners of Anglo Leasing, saying a Mr Colin Flynn signed contractual papers while other transactions were done by post by a law firm based in Liverpool. The Government Information Technology Services had also evaluated the project proposal and approved it because it "scores highly on the technical evaluation framework set out for the project."

The minutes further said the project was consistent with the needs of the Immigration Department.Mwiraria’s insistence that he is innocent comes amidst intense pressure from donors, politicians, rights groups and the civil society that action be taken against those implicated.Anglo Leasing has been linked to several other scandals involving a computerisation project for the Kenya Airports Authority, supply of communication equipment for the Prisons Department and a forensic laboratory for the Criminal Investigations Department.

Mwiraria said he is empowered by the law to authorise single sourcing, but added that Anglo Leasing was selected among two other companies because it was the cheapest.Added the minute: "This project represents a high priority of this government to modernise the Immigration Department, reduce corruption, combat terrorism and raise levels of security, safety and confidence of our citizens".

Mr Magari and the PS in the Office of the Vice President, Mr Sylvester Mwaliko, were dismissed last month after details of the scam came to the fore. Financial Secretary Joseph Oyula was also shown the door in last week’s reshuffle.Yesterday, Mwiraria said contrary to claims by the PAC that he declined to appear before it, he was never formally summoned to answer questions on the contract.

He charged that PAC chairman Omingo Magara "is very fond of publicity" and used to summon him for grilling over public media against parliamentary practice."Although I had verbally been warned that I may be required to appear on June 4, I received no formal invitation and no one called me. On that day, I stayed out of the office to write the Budget Speech," he said.

Mwiraria said he did not respond to a summon to answer questions on a special audit report because it had not mentioned him. He wrote to the Clerk of the National Assembly on the issue but was yet to get a response.The minister agreed that the government had made an exchange loss of more than Sh2 million because payments were made in Euros.He, however, insisted that the government was winning the war against corruption, but declined to comment on its future relationship with donors.