Top officials of the Ministry of Planning and Devolution were yesterday thrown out of a parliamentary committee sitting following revelations of fresh wastage and misuse of public funds at a ministry already gripped by unanswered questions regarding a Sh791 million scandal.
Planning Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti and at least 30 ministry officials including the Director General of the National Youth Service, Nelson Githinji, were told to leave the committee meeting to go and get figures to explain the spending of Sh8 billion on ministry assets.
While the accounting officer pointed an accusing finger at the “people in procurement”, the latest revelations reignited the burning questions on why Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru, her PS and even the NYS boss were still in office with all manner of allegations against them, including the proven theft of Sh791 million in irregular transactions.
An investigation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations found that NYS lost Sh791 million between December 2014 and April 2015 to companies associated with three individuals. The probe also unearthed a conspiracy to defraud the Government of Sh695 million by the same cartel.
The initial suspect transaction, the DCI wrote on June 5, involved Sh828.6 million but it emerged the PS had approved Sh133 million. Payment of the other Sh695 million was stopped after the cover was blown, officials insist. This raises questions, especially, given the reckless boldness with which the scheme to empty public coffers of Sh1.5 billion within five months was implemented. Just how powerful are these people or their associates to carry out a fraud involving such huge amounts of monies.
Why is it that the CS, PS and NYS boss - despite acknowledging loss of Sh791 million - haven’t been asked to step aside in the same manner in which President Uhuru Kenyatta asked other officials merely on the basis of allegations of impropriety in a report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, which he presented to Parliament in March, this year?
The queries about the apparent discriminatory fight against corruption, while the rest of the Cabinet and civil servants are hounded out on the basis of unproven allegations has led MPs to launch an impeachment bid against Ms Waiguru, which is expected for debate next week. Some 88 MPs, mainly from the Opposition, have signed the impeachment motion.
Waiguru says she is the whistleblower, that she stopped the payment of Sh695 million after it was found out the transaction was fraudulent. She says it is only after investigations that it was discovered Sh791 million had been looted earlier. But the follow-up question is, if Sh791 million could disappear without her knowledge, isn’t it reason enough to take responsibility given that she was unable to protect public funds?
There are also doubts over whether she has recorded statements with the DCI or the EACC regarding the scandal, so as to allow the Director of Public Prosecution Keriako Tobiko to determine if she was complicit in the fraud or simply negligent in executing her job.
The DPP did not respond to queries from The Standard about Waiguru’s fate. The PS and the Director General of NYS are also still in office and it is unclear why they are still earning public money and managing their dockets even after recording statements with the EACC.
Karen land
Suspended Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Felix Koskei had to step aside from the helm of his docket because of an allegation that he irregularly leased out land belonging to the Kenya Veterinary Vaccine Production Institute in Tigoni to plant potatoes. His other case was that he allegedly irregularly allocated sugar import permits.
Also, suspended Lands CS Charity Ngilu had to leave because of alleged obstruction of justice concerning land in Karen. She was also accused of seeking to defraud the Government in the planned sale of Waitiki’s land in Mombasa to the State. However, she was later cleared.
Suspended Roads and Infrastructure CS Michael Kamau was shown the door because he allegedly contracted a local firm to do 80 per cent of clearing and forwarding at the Mombasa port and allegedly colluded to set aside a consultant’s road design.
And suspended Energy CS Davis Chirchir had to quit because of allegations he attempted to influence the award of a Kenya Pipeline Company tender costing $500 million to Sinopec instead of Zakhem, which was meant to corruptly yield $15 million (approximately Sh1.35 billion) to be shared between Chirchir and Senator Mike Mbuvi.
Suspended Labour CS Kambi Kazungu left office because he allegedly came out to strongly support the NSSF Tassia II project despite indications that the Board of Trustees did not approve the project’s revised cost estimate of Sh5.053 billion, up from from Sh3.304 billion and that the alleged approval by way of e-mail was improper and irregular.
The EACC in its dossier to the President, which was the basis of the suspension of the five Cabinet Secretaries, said the “IFMIS re-engineering” cost Sh1.5 billion, when it should have cost less than Sh500,000. There was also another project that cost Sh900 million whereas the true value was Sh300 million. The “suspect” according to the EACC dossier is “procurement director”.
