Waiguru’s PS now disowns ‘sex toys’ report
Devolution Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti has disowned a report he presented before a parliamentary oversight committee, saying it was erroneous.
The report, which came in the wake of loss of Sh791 million through corruption at the National Youth Service (NYS), which falls under the Devolution ministry, appeared to lead to the suspension of Cabinet Secretary Ann Waiguru, but she still remains in office.
Ms Waiguru is on Tuesday expected to record a statement with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to shed light on the massive corruption scandals that have rocked her ministry.
“An internal investigation has been launched to establish whether the errors contained in the report I presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) were as a result of something unlawful,” he said on Monday.
WAIGURU TO STEP ASIDE
Asked whether he was of the view that the pressure on the CS to step aside should ease, considering that part of the accusations levelled against her were emanating from the report with “errors”, the PS was hesitant, before declaring he was “100 per cent behind” the minister.
Some of the shocking details to come from the report presented to the National Assembly’s PAC by Dr Mangiti, and which put Ms Waiguru under more pressure to step aside, was inflating of the cost of some of the assets acquired by the ministry, which the PS now says were erroneous.
They include a TV set that was reportedly purchased at Sh1.7 million, ball point pens that went for as much as Sh8,700 each, and curious items such as sex toys.
HUMAN ERROR
On Monday, the PS, who was apprehensive, said the report he presented was in draft form and contained errors, adding that he did not think the incorrect data was intentional or “choreographed” but was mainly due to human error.
He however, could not determine the cause of the incorrect information, which sparked public anger.
At a press conference in Nairobi yesterday, Dr Mangiti said some of the descriptions of items contained in the report were incomplete, and had erroneously referred to a device purchased at Sh1.7 million as a TV set.
He said the equipment was an integrated performance monitoring dashboard screen/PC.
