The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has warned over the increasing cases of budgeted corruption in the devolved units.
According to the commission’s spokesperson, Eric Ngumbi, county executives are colluding with county assemblies to loot public funds by budgeting for non-existing projects.
In other instances, Ngumbi said, ward representatives are working in cahoots with the county executive to allocate money for complete projects.
He noted that the trend had become so entrenched in the counties to the extent that some county assemblies have now abandoned their oversight role as the Members of County Assembly and their cronies scramble to position themselves as the main beneficiaries of county tenders.
“The commission continues to note that many county governments are engaging in budgeted corruption. They do it through collusion between the relevant committees of the county assembly and the chief officers of the departments where projects are to take place,” said Ngumbi.
“They collude to allocate money for projects that are not intended for implementation or existing projects with a view of taking the money and utilizing it for their own use,” added the spokesperson.
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Ngumbi also attributed the rising cases of ghost workers in counties to budgeted corruption. Terming it as the main form of payroll fraud affecting county governments, Ngumbi said that the commission is investigating a syndicate where top county officials are inflating the number of county employees and later benefiting from the embezzled funds.
“Ghost workers is a problem that continues to persist in our counties where these individuals from the concerned departments are getting slots for ghost workers where money is then paid in the form of salaries to non-existing workers. This money eventually finds its way to the pockets of the top county officials,” said Ngumbi.
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The spokesman was speaking in Nyeri during a media sensitization workshop for Central Region journalists. The workshop brought together journalists from Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Nyandarua and Nyeri counties.
Ngumbi said that investigations had already commenced in 24 counties where former governors and other top county officials are suspected to have embezzled public funds. In addition to prosecution, he said that the EACC will also be seeking to recover proceeds acquired from illegal and irregular award of tenders during their tenure.
“We continue to be guided by the law and evidence so we are coming to you because investigations into the theft of public funds have led us to you. In addition, it important to note that it does not matter whether the contractor delivered the goods. If the contract is illegal and if money was paid pursuant to such a contract, that money is recoverable in full,” he stated.
Addressing the participants, EACC Central Region manager, Hassan Khalid pointed out grabbing of government land and public property and bribery as the most rampant form of corruption affecting the region. Out of the 378 complaints reported in central during the 2023/2024 fiscal year,20.37 per cent (77 complaints) related to bribery.
“We have had four convictions in the region where three of the cases related to bribery and one case related to irregular procurement of road rehabilitation work where the suspect was convicted,” said Khalid.
During the year under review, the region recorded 37 complaints relating to the illegal acquisition and disposal of public property. Khalid noted some of the notable land recoveries made include parcels of land set aside for construction of a bus park in Nyahururu, land set aside for the construction of a police station in Karatina and a Ministry of Housing residence valued at Sh 4 million was also recovered in Nyeri.
Further, the analysis ranked embezzlement and the misappropriation of public funds as the third most common form of corruption in the region. According to Khalid, EACC recorded 24 embezzlement cases in the region representing 6.35 per cent of all complaints filed.
The commission similarly recovered Sh8.4 million that had been fraudulently acquired by county officials. At the same time, EACC through their preventive strategy, stopped the loss of Sh52 million by the Kirinyaga county government. The money had been listed as a pending bill for fictitious survey services allegedly rendered to the county government.
“A total of Sh2.9 million was recovered from a District Accountant. We also recovered Sh 5.5 million from county officials for unaccounted goods,” said Khalid.
The region which covers Nyeri, Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Embu, Laikipia and Nyandarua counties similarly recorded an equal number of complaints relating to abuse of office (23 cases) and unethical conduct (23 cases) during the same period.
In his analysis on the status of corruption in central, Khalid said that the region had recorded 8 cases of public procurement irregularities, six cases of unexplained wealth for county officers and four cases of conflict of interest where top county officers are believed to have awarded tenders to their kin.
The regional manager said that the commission has instituted 13 forensic cases probing the involvement of top county officials in procurement irregularities, unexplained wealth and embezzlement of public resources with the hope of bringing the culprits to book.
“We have a number of public officials that we are investigating for unexplained assets especially for officers in departments such as Finance and Procurement. One thing that every accounting officer must know is that where they fail to take their responsibility to protect funds, they will be surcharged and held to account,” said Khalid.
– By KNA / Wangari Mwangi
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