Past sins haunt top NYS officer Adan Harakhe

FROM LEFT: Former Devolution CS Ann Waiguru, former NYS Senior Director General Adan Gedow Harakhe and former Director Nelson Githinji when they appeared before a parliamentary committee in July last year. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

NAIROBI: Damning revelations on the dubious past of a top National Youth Service (NYS) officer relied on by former Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru to absolve herself from blame in the multi-million scam have emerged.

Adan Gedow Harakhe, the man who claims to have assisted Waiguru to “whistle-blow” the scam has a history of “non-compliance, misappropriation, smuggling, gross misconduct and non-performance” according to a fresh internal probe obtained by The Standard on Sunday.

The report by a four-man team constituted last month under the auspices of the Ministerial Human Resource Management Advisory Committee (MHRMAC) says Harakhe should not have been entrusted with a public office in the first place.

“The officer cannot be entrusted with public resources due to the number of cases that are related to fraudulent use of government funds and that he be dismissed from the service,” the report recommends.

Harakhe was acting senior deputy director-general of NYS in charge of all key functions – procurement, human resources, administration and finance – at the time the multimillion scandal flared up. The report found that his position was amorphous and “does not exist in the authorised structure of NYS.”

‘BRAVE AND BOLD’

He has since been interdicted.

The new report contradicts the mental picture created in Waiguru’s affidavit of a conscientious, brave and bold officer of impeccable integrity - one who went against great odds to forestall loss of public funds.

His pompous and conversational memos, allegedly written at the time of implosion of the scandal, were heavily relied upon by Waiguru to drag in Jubilee bigwigs into the scam.

In the memos, Harakhe is depicted as standing up to his own PS Peter Mangiti, former Director General of NYS Nelson Githinji and Jubilee heavyweights Aden Duale and Kipchumba Murkomen.

The report of the team chaired by Michael Mugo, the Secretary, Public Service Transformation Department, found out that his services as a public servant had been discontinued severally in the past and wondered how he always bounced back – bigger and better.

On November 1, 1994 for example, the team found that Harakhe was dismissed by the Public Service Commission (PSC) after failing to demonstrate his suitability for retention. No records could be found on how he found his way back.

On March 24, 1998, Harakhe was interdicted vide a letter by former Provincial Commissioner, Nyanza, over illegal diversion of petroleum products meant for export back into the local market. At the time, he was serving as District Officer in Usigu, Siaya.

Earlier in the same month, March 9, 1998, his paramilitary training at Administration Police Training College in Embakasi was discontinued for what his seniors described as “stubbornness” on his part.

Two months later on May 22, 1998, the Provincial Administration PS reprimanded Harakhe for “living beyond his means” and for another vague charge of “exhibiting characteristics that are detrimental to the nation”.

In the same memo by the PS, Harakhe was also warned about his “deteriorating performance” as well as “his knack to wanting to please others”, the report says.

Between January 6 and 10, 1999, Harakhe was remanded for “keeping petrol in a house” contrary to Section 13 (1) as read with Section 10 of the Petroleum Act, Cap 116”. He was however later acquitted on this score and his interdiction lifted.

The report, marked “confidential”, says Harakhe’s salary was stopped in November 2005 due to alleged “non-compliance”.

In October 2009, the PS Internal Security reprimanded the officer over gross misconduct for occasioning the loss of Sh3 million meant to settle Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Kipkelion, Rift Valley.

A letter dated July 19, 2012 by the Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet accused Harakhe of receiving bribes and protecting illegal loggers in the same area.

The most recent disciplinary issue listed in the report is dated October 6, 2014, a month before he was deployed to NYS. In the matter, the County Commissioner Bungoma wrote a “show cause letter” to Harakhe for absconding duty without permission. “He was also accused of insubordination by sending rude SMS to the County Commissioner,” the report states.

A month later on November 27, 2014, Harakhe was deployed to the NYS. Two months later on January 15, 2015, on the same day he reported to NYS, he was appointed to the Ministerial Tender Committee.

A month later on February 18 at a meeting held at Waiguru’s former office, Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) was removed from Director General of NYS Dr Nelson Githinji and handed over to Harakhe.

NIGHT MEETINGS

According to minutes of the meeting, Harakhe had “more time to effectively process requests promptly” than Githinji who was reported by the CS as being too bogged down by operational matters to be effective. Shockingly, the investigating team found that Harakhe was appointed both AIE holder and also the alternate AIE holder.

The investigating team reports that a former Deputy Director-General of NYS told them that Harakhe “acted and believed that he had been deployed at NYS to take over as DG”.

The Deputy DG also said Harakhe used to hold meetings “with merchants at night” and that some of the procurement was processed as late as midnight against NYS regulations. He also informed the team that Harakhe had three officers who were assisting him on IFMIS.

“Mr Harakhe used to report directly to the former CS and the Senior Director of Administration (Hassan Noor Hassan) and the DG used to report to the former PS. This made the institution have two camps, with one aligned to the DG and the other to Harakhe,” the report says.

The Deputy DG told the investigators that she doubted whether Harakhe had the academic qualifications of two master’s degrees “as he purports to possess”. She also affirmed that Harakhe was working closely with Noor who also chaired the MTC.

The former head of supply chain management Andrew Nyongesa Pilisi testified that on several occasions, Harakhe coerced him to commence processing payments that lacked proper supporting documents.

The officer also claimed that Waiguru interdicted him for declining to process Local Purchase Orders (LPOs) which lacked supporting documents, leading to accumulation of pending bills amounting to approximately Sh100 million.

Further, Pilisi told the investigators that under Harakhe’s watch, procurement of supplies related to projects in slum upgrading were purchased without following laid down regulations. Projects, he said, were commenced before requisitions for materials and bill of quantities were made.

The report faults the listing of Harakhe as a witness and not a suspect in one of the NYS cases despite all evidence adduced to show he was involved.

It accuses him of contravening the public service code of regulations by communicating directly to the former PS, former CS and current Senior Director of Administration. It also accuses him of failure to follow laid down regulations on reporting channels on the matter of his IFMIS password.

 When Harakhe appeared before the committee, he pleaded his innocence saying the Sh791 million loss occurred before he reported to NYS. He also claimed he reported to CID after the former PS proved “to be of no help” and after he threatened and coerced him.

MASSIVE LOSSES

He also told the team he had no past disciplinary issues.

“While the CID report and the charge sheet mentioned him as a witness and not an accused for the loss of Sh791 million, on the contrary, the Deputy DG and former Head of Supply Chain Management attributed him to have occasioned loss of colossal amounts of money,” the report says.

The report also recommends further investigations into fears that more money may have been lost at NYS during Harakhe’s short-lived stay at the institution. It recommends that the officer be accorded a hearing. It also recommends an audit into suitability of officers holding various positions at NYS. There is a somewhat contradictory (but qualified) recommendation that MHRMAC could consider reinstating Harakhe.

The team was set up by the PS Planning on January 13, 2016. It comprised of Mugo as chair, two members – Simon Angote, the director of human resources in the department and Mary Ngugi, the principal HRM. Emmanuel Mokoro, the acting director information, education and communication was the secretary.