EACC presents to the Ministry of Labour a Report of compliance monitoring on the implementation of cash transfers to the old
24:09:2024: The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has presented the Principal Secretary of the State Department for Social Protection and Senior Citizens Affairs, Mr Joseph Motari, with the Report on the compliance monitoring of the implementation of the Older Persons Cash Transfer Programme (OPCT).
The study was conducted between April 5th and May 22nd, 2024, and it aimed to identify weaknesses and opportunities that could be exploited to perpetuate corrupt and unethical practices and to provide recommendations to strengthen the systems of work.
Its scope included the policy, legal and institutional framework, procedures, processes, and work practices adopted in implementing the OPCT programme. EACC’s prevention officers who assessed the systems visited the Ministry’s head office in Nairobi and selected regional and sub-county offices.
The review took the form of formal and informal interviews, content analysis of various documents used in the cash transfer programme, policy analysis, Operations Manual (OM) and other accountable documents. The officers also visited the sampled beneficiaries in selected counties.
The assessment established, among other key findings, that the Department failed to establish mechanisms for identifying pensioners among existing and eligible OPCT Programme beneficiaries, which could deny more deserving older persons priority as beneficiaries. It was also noted that there were significant delays in exiting deceased beneficiaries from the programme. In some instances, withdrawals were made from the accounts of deceased beneficiaries nearly three years after death.
Receiving the Report in his office today, September 24, 2024, at Social Security House in Nairobi, Mr Motari welcomed it, stating that some of its findings and recommendations had already been flagged in the Department’s external auditor’s Report and were being addressed. He promised to use the Report as his Department’s working tool and asked his staff to study and internalize it.
Commissioner Alfred Mshimba, who was back to hand over the Report after he flagged off the review process in March, thanked the Department for its desire to work with the Commission, which “has few friends.” He said EACC is heavy on prevention and the successful cooperation with the Department for Social Protection and Senior Citizens Affairs should be testimony that institutions can work with EACC to preempt corruption.
EACC reviews public institutions’ systems on invitation or on its own volition pursuant to its mandate to prevent and disrupt corruption in public entities.
