Rotich tells Raila to ‘stop peddling lies’ on Eurobond funds

Henry Rotich has asked Raila Odinga to “stop peddling lies” about a Eurobond fund worth more than Sh100 billion that the Cord leader claimed was missing.

Raila’s allegations are “misplaced”, the Treasury CS said, and asked him to table documented evidence that the money cannot be accounted for.

The CS said claims the money was lost resulted from the misinterpretation of the relevant annex of the budget review and outlook paper and the budgetary policy statement.

The two documents are “key” and are to be presented to Parliament, in line with Public Finance Management Act 2012, he said.

“No, there is no missing Sh140 billion” Rotich said, explaining that of the Sh250 billion Eurobond money, Sh35 billion was spent in the 2013/14 financial year as “commercial financing”.

“The remaining amount of Sh140.5 billion from the initial sovereign bond and the Sh75 billion from the tap sales were used in financial year 2014/15,” he said during a press conference at his office on Friday.

Rotich reiterated that the funds have been fully accounted for and added that the Controller of Budget and Auditor General independently confirmed this.

“Those peddling lies… let them also be accountable… The issue is sensitive to investors and it is important to get the facts right. This is a clear misinterpretation of the fiscal accounts, that is why we invited people here,” he said.

The CS noted that the goals for issuing the bond and the tap sales were met.

These he stipulated as “to diversify out external sources of funding government projects, achieve lower interest rates, build international reserves, and stabilise the shilling and inflation.”

Rotich invited Raila to to his office for the details of the spending but the Opposition leader declined saying the CS should make the information public as it is not just for his “personal satisfaction”.

Raila had given banks and the Treasury 14 days to provide details on the Eurobond fund. He said the government’s books did not balance and that “it is clear official accounts have been cooked and continue to be cooked”.

Rotich said the Eurobond fund was used in accordance to the law and there were no under-hand dealings.

But in another response on Thursday, Raila said the Jubilee government could not have used the amount in a year without the public’s sense of an effect, if it was assigned to infrastructure development.

Source- the-star.co.ke

Rotich tells Raila to ‘stop peddling lies’ on Eurobond funds