The ministry of youth has denied losing Sh8 billion in fraudulent payments to non-existent firms for allegedly supplying air at the National Youth Service (NYS).
Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs ministry instead says 13 vouchers which are under investigations by a multi-agency team led by the directorate of criminal investigations (DCI) drew Sh121 million and not Sh8 billion as claimed.
According to a brief prepared by Principal Secretary Lilian Mbogo-Omollo to CS Margret Kobia, the state department has forwarded to the CID Sh900 million as the amount paid and not Sh8 billion as touted by National Intelligence Service (NIS) director general.
Last Thursday President Uhuru Kenyatta met CS Kobia where he demanded answers on an intelligence brief to the effect that about Sh8 billion had been lost.
“Following your meeting with His Excellency the President on May 10, 2018 and our subsequent debriefing, I wish to update you as follows; the state department continues to comply with requests from DCI for submission of documents and recording of statements by officers,” Omollo states.
She adds; “All the vouchers submitted for investigations to the DCI amount to a total of Sh900 million. This is not even remotely close to the Sh8 billion figure the Director General, NIS is claiming lost/stolen/fraudulent.”
The memo MPYG.CS/1/7/5 dated May 12, 2018 further states that several officers including the PS and Director General NYS Richard Ndubai have recorded statements in addition to providing DCI with all documents.
Police and anti-graft agency have opened separate investigations at NYS following fresh claims of fraudulent payments involving pending bills.
Officers from the DCI who commenced a probe about six months ago are combing through all payments made to suppliers for the last six years.
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It has however emerged the claims are not new. They had been reported to Parliament, DCI and EACC.
The said vouchers had been vetted by three committees set up within the department.
In the 2016/2017 financial year, the state department of Public Service and Youth received Sh22.2 billion while in the 2017/2018 it got Sh17.9 billion.
Of this, NYS suppliers were paid Sh6.2 billion in the 2016/2017 period while Sh2.6 billion was paid in the 2017/2018 period.
In the 2016/2017 period, there were Sh3.6 billion that were unpayable while Sh2.3 billion were unpayable in the 2017/2018.
In the 2016/2017 period, there were 1,401 suppliers as opposed to 421 in the 2017/2018 period.
Investigators want to establish if there are any cases of collusion between suppliers and public officers that may have led to theft of money in fictitious claims involving billions of shillings.
The exercise was triggered by allegations that some ghost suppliers had been included in a list prepared by the ministry to offset pending bills from 2013 to 2016, outside the Sh791 million scandal in 2015.
The files on the probe will be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for action.
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