Judiciary on trial as JSC lays down Sh1.2bn case against Chief Registrar The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has asked Chief Registrar Gladys Boss Shollei to explain her role in suspect financial transactions that could have cost the tax payer Sh1.2 billion in two years. In a brief to Mrs Shollei, who is the accounting officer of the Judiciary, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga says the commission was investigating allegations of impropriety in finance, procurement, human resource and insubordination against her. The charges arose from investigations by two committees of the JSC last month and were formally handed to her on Tuesday. She is expected to respond in 21 days. “As the accounting officer of the Judiciary, you failed to ensure that public funds are utilised prudently resulting into misuse of approximately Sh1.2 billion,” reads the letter detailing the allegations against Mrs Shollei. Since the allegations came to public on August 19, Mrs Shollei has defended her track record, saying all her dealings were above board and in the best interest of Kenyans. Saturday, we invited her to comment on the latest accusations, but her media advisor Mr Nick Wachira said she would respond after we publish the story. Among the most damaging claims is that between October 31, 2012 and November 21, 2012 the registrar took an eight-month salary advance — estimated at Sh3.5 million — which she had not cleared by the time the JSC demanded an explanation on the payments. “You had the salary advance payments effected from the Judiciary Fund instead of the Consolidated Fund Services which is your pay point ostensibly to avoid detection of the payments at the Treasury,” says the JSC. Mrs Shollei is also accused of paying two junior employees — her personal assistant and secretary — very high salaries and assigning them official government vehicles and drivers which they are not entitled to. “You have selectively and in a discriminatory manner authorised training, foreign travel and payment of allowances to staff in your office and others who find favour with you in breach of Government Financial Regulations… As a result the said staff have been paid colossal amounts of money by the Judiciary in a span of two years,” says the JSC brief. For instance, her personal assistant Nicholas Okemwa is said to have received Sh11,201,313 and her secretary Ann Nyokabi Mbugua Sh4,590,806. The JSC claims Mrs Shollei irregularly effected promotions, secondment and placement of staff from other public institutions. “You irregularly placed the staff on secondment on high salary scales and job groups not authorised by the JSC,” it says, adding that she usurped powers of the commission on disciplinary matters. “You have unilaterally and irregularly taken and caused to be taken arbitrary disciplinary action against judicial staff without regard to laid down procedure and contrary to directions given by the commission and the provisions of the Judicial Service Act, to wit, cases of the Hon Moses Serem, Rose Ochieng, Linda Thuma, Grace Ngala, among others,” reads the charge on staff discipline. Citing numerous cases, the JSC blames the despondency, apathy, divisions and low morale in the Judiciary on Mrs Shollei’s partial leadership. “You have regularly and selectively authorised some of the staff in your office and others that you favour to enjoy special perks such as the use government vehicles, reimbursements of costs of further studies that are not commensurate with their cadre.” Also called into question is the hiring of a security consultant – dismissed by the JSC as “an entity not known in law for security services through direct procurement contrary to the law”— at Sh29 million, single sourcing of computer servers for Sh54 million and paying Sh20 million for a case management system under unclear circumstances. She is also accused of arbitrarily opening bank accounts and failing to issue guidelines on how Sh350,509,384 disbursed to the Judiciary Training Institute was to be accounted for. “As a result, you authorised irregular payments of large sums of money on account of recurrent expenditure to be made through the Judiciary Training Institute and the Milimani KCB accounts….” The registrar is also on the spot over the manner in which the Judiciary rented office premises and godowns. “You caused the Judiciary to make irregular payment on account of the Rahimtulla Premises for security deposits equivalent to six months’ rent, service charge and parking fees in the colossal sum of Sh48,716,386,” says the brief. It adds: “You wrongfully authorised, allowed and/or delegated your responsibilities as an accounting officer to one Nicholas Okemwa, a junior officer, to cause the irregular payment.” Mrs Shollei is also facing accusations of renting a building in Industrial Area whose title deed had been cancelled in 2009 without the authority of the commission and spending Sh31 million on second-hand furniture for the Rahimtulla office. Renting of the controversial Elgon Place, which is meant to house Court of Appeal judges for five years and which has stoked a different controversy, has also been questioned. The commissioners want to know why Mrs Shollei paid more than Sh42 million twice from different accounts for the same purpose. It is alleged that the registrar entered into a lease agreement for Elgon Place without valuations for current market rates, with documents that were not properly prepared and dated, without the seal of the Judiciary and which were not executed, witnessed and sealed by the landlord as required by law. The JSC is also looking into how Mrs Shollei paid rent for the premises in foreign currency “contrary to government financial regulations” and why the landlord was paid for services he had not provided. “You have authorised payments totalling Sh169,051,914 to be made on account of the premises for rents of January-June 2013 contrary to the terms of the lease agreement and way in excess of the agreed rent.” Mrs Shollei has in the past defended the transaction, saying everything was done above board. The JSC accuses the registrar of “consistently” failing to attend its meetings “contrary to the law causing the commission to issue directions requiring your attendance which directions you have persistently refused to comply with.” It also accuses her of claiming sitting allowances for meetings she did not attend when JSC was interviewing Court of Appeal and High Court judges, magistrates and legal researchers. Members of the Judicial Service Commission earn Sh80,000 per sitting. Last month, she denied taking the allowances and said she had paid back money for trips she did not make. The JSC alleges that Mrs Shollei irregularly restructured the finance department “leaving you to transact financial matters solely with the director of finance, in total disregard of the principle of checks and balances in handling public funds.” It wants to know why she leased premises from the Agricultural Finance Corporation and procured information technology service providers without following due process. The JSC is also looking at the sourcing of constructors for prefabricated courthouses in Bomet, Marimati, Othaya and Wang’uru at a cost of Sh111 million. Aside from finances and staff mismanagement, the commission accuses Mrs Shollei of misbehaviour, insubordination and countermanding its decisions and orders. Interestingly, the decision to address the media moments after the Chief Justice announced the resolution to send her on forced leave seems to have rubbed the commissioners the wrong way. “On August 19, 2013 you addressed the media and publicly referred to the Commission’s resolution (to send her on forced leave) among others as “irresponsible” thereby exhibiting open contempt for the Commission,” it says. The registrar faces nine counts of insubordination, among them frustrating efforts by the commission to develop its regulations under Section 47 of the Judicial Service Act. Another charge revolves around the sacking of judges found unfit by the vetting board. It says: “You failed to cause the implementation of the commission’s resolution of April 20, 2013 directing that judges who had been found unfit to serve by the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board be paid half salary pending the determination of the cases they had filed in the Court of Appeal challenging that decision.” The JSC also says that Mrs Shollei unilaterally carried out job changes for the positions of the Chief Accounts Controller and Registrar Court of Appeal, contrary to the recruitment for the posts done by the commission.” In another charge, the commission states Mrs Shollei had consistently kept it in the dark on core matters such as staff rationalisation, payroll and auditing. On Tuesday, Mrs Shollei was given 21 days to respond to allegations raised against her. This followed a meeting chaired by Dr Mutunga. “The meeting was fine. We deliberated on a number of issues,” said Deputy Registrar Kakai Kissinger who declined to give further details. “She has been asked to answer to the claims including those touching on the spending of Sh1.2 billion so that the commission can get to hear her side of the story. We have agreed that it will not be a witch-hunt but a sober exercise to get to the truth,” said a commissioner. Ms Shollei, who reported to work on Monday, had previously accused the JSC of not following the law in sending her home. Last week, Parliament’s committee on Justice and Legal Affairs raised procurement questions against the JSC. Mrs Shollei was on August 19 sent on a two-week leave to allow two JSC committees — Finance and Administration and Human Resource Management — to investigate allegations of impropriety levelled against her. The decision led to a fall-out between her and JSC during which she appeared before the Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee and accused commissioners Ahmednasir Abdullahi, Mohammed Warsame and Emily Ominde of orchestrating her problems. She then went to court claiming JSC violated her rights in sending her home without informing her of the case she was facing. Mrs Shollei added that the action amounted to abuse of power. She sued JSC, Mr Abdullahi, Justice Warsame and Chief Magistrate Ominde. The commission, however, opted for negotiations to settle the dispute out of court and on August 30, the parties reached a settlement to withdraw the petition. Prior to this, the JSC had rejected summons to appear before MPs over the saga, saying it would undermine the principle of separation of powers. “Under Article 249(2) the commission is independent and not subject to direction or control by any person or authority,” said the commission at the time. But the committee chaired by Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga had insisted the summons must be honoured. The Chepkonga committee said Standing Order 216 gives it power to investigate, inquire into, and report on matters relating to the mandate, management, activities, administration, operations of assigned ministries and departments. The committee had summoned the JSC and three of its 11 members to shed light on allegations made before it by Mrs Shollei who had been sent on a 15-day compulsory early last month pending investigations into allegations of impropriety against her.
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 09:00:39 +0000
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