MPs demand for an audit into IEBC's over Sh2 billion legal fees debt

By Peter Ochieng

A parliamentary committee has demanded for a comprehensive forensic audit of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission's (IEBC) legal expenditures, which have accumulated to a staggering Sh2.7 billion.

Members of the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) say that the escalating legal fees, currently classified as pending bills owed to various prominent City lawyers for handling election petitions on behalf of IEBC, may represent a potential misuse of public funds.

During a session chaired by Butere MP Tindi Mwale, members said a thorough investigation will ensure that public resources are being used appropriately, so as to restore public confidence in the electoral body's fiscal responsibility.

IEBC has been flagged by the Office of the Auditor General, for having pending bills totaling Sh2 billion as of June 30, 2022, which were not settled during the financial year 2021/2022 and were instead carried forward to the 2022/2023 financial year.

In the Auditor General’s annual report for the 2021-2022 financial year, it was noted that some of the pending bills date back more than ten years.

“Furthermore, the amount includes legal pending bills totaling Sh1,733,343,356, which have increased from Sh1,316,180,629 as reported on June 30, 2021.

The Commission risks facing legal actions due to the debt remaining outstanding for the past ten years,” the auditor's report states.

Members examined the report of the Auditor-General for the Year ended 30th June, 2022 with regard to the Accounts of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Mwale said his team had come to the realisation that a significant portion of the pending bills were legal fees accrued by the IEBC over a period of ten years.

“As a committee, we have decided that a forensic audit was necessary to understand the full scope of these expenses. We have also called for an investigation into the legal firms that have represented the IEBC in these petitions. We suspect that there may have been instances of fraud, with accusations pointing to exorbitant legal fees that appear to defraud public resources,” said the MP.

Lugari MP Nabii Nabwera on his part described the legal fees charged by law firms as “unrealistic, inflated, and excessive.”

Appearing before the committee on Tuesday, IEBC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Marjan Hussein Marjan struggled to justify the sizable pending bill for legal fees, emphasising that the commission does not control the number of election petitions filed in various courts across the country.

While acknowledging that 90% of the pending bills are due to legal fees from election petitions, Marjan noted that these petitions have a fixed timeframe within which they must be heard and resolved.