Scandal rocks Competition Authority recruitment of Director-General
Former Director General of Competition Authority of Kenya Wang'ombe Kariuki at a past function in Nairobi on September 28, 2018.
What you need to know:
- The revelations come at a time senators have opened investigations into the saga surrounding the delayed recruitment exercise.
- Spilling the beans on Tuesday, Senate National Cohesion committee chairperson Mohamed Chute detailed how the additional applicants were added to the 22 applicants who had initially made the cut.
Details have emerged of how the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) sneaked in 33 additional applicants who did not make the cut for the director-general’s post into the final shortlist.
The revelations come at a time senators have opened investigations into the saga surrounding the delayed recruitment exercise.
Spilling the beans on Tuesday, Senate National Cohesion committee chairperson Mohamed Chute detailed how the additional applicants were added to the 22 applicants who had initially made the cut.
The Marsabit senator alleged that the Authority added some 33 applicants into the final list of applicants despite additional applicants failing to meet requirements for the vacant DG’s position.
He said the competitions agency had outsourced the services of a management consulting firm, ACAL Consulting, to manage the process.
According to the senator, the firm shortlisted 22 candidates for the vacant post under the qualification requirements set out in the advertisement, which were later abandoned to accommodate the 33 additional applicants.
Mr Chute said the Authority had included some strict conditions during the advertisement only to later remove the conditions to accommodate the additional applicants.
“The strict conditions locked out many people. But the 33 who did not meet these conditions were brought back and the requirement that barred them was removed,” said Mr Chute.
The details emerged after nominated senator Raphael Chimera sought to know the circumstances under which the Authority had exempted some qualifications that were initially in the original call for applications.
The CAK Board had in August 2022 begun the process of recruiting a new DG to replace Mr Wang’ombe Kariuki whose term ended in January, 2023 with Dr Adano Wario appointed to the position in an acting capacity.
The Authority had invited applicants for the position targeting economics, statistics, law, and business professionals with at least 15 years of relevant work experience.
Mr Kariuki was appointed in January 2013 as the first director-general at the authority, serving for two terms of five years each. Earlier, he had served in the same post in an acting capacity for one-and-a-half years from August 2011.
The Committee is now seeking details of the tendering process for the procurement of recruitment services.
They want all documentation from the day they started recruitment, including the advert, gazette notice, as well as how the recruitment company was contracted to carry out the exercise.
The senators also want a report on the fairness of the recruitment process, confirmation of claims of conflict of interest in the operations of CAK and a clarification on whether the Public Service Commission is monitoring the recruitment process to ensure that it aligns with principles of meritocracy.
“We are trying to dig this information on how some of the requirements were exempted to add more people into the programme. For us to get to the root of the matter, let the principal secretary and the chairperson attend in person next Tuesday,” said Mr Chute.
“We also want the company to come before us and tell us the people they shortlisted and why up to today, nothing is happening,” he added.
The committee had summoned the chairperson of the Authority Shaka Kariuki to appear before the committee and answer questions after alleged dealings to favour some applicants who had applied for the position of the DG emerged.
However, Mr Kariuki wrote back and delegated the task to the acting DG Wario and Director Corporate Services Erick Mwangi.
The Committee sent away the two officials noting that they are not the right individuals to answer the emerging questions.
“The letter here is signed by one Shaka Kariuki, if he is your chair I don’t understand why he is not here today. He is supposed to be here to answer these. It is as if he is running away from his responsibilities,” said Mr Chute.
