County officials unable to account for Sh45m

Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi addresses the Senate Public Accounts Committee on August 12, 2016. Some of the county's officers cannot account for Sh45 million. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • According to the report tabled before the committee, County Secretary Owen Baya had indicated that the money was stolen on September 27.
  • She also said the scandal in her health department was unearthed on September 29, and that they had already recorded statements with EACC investigators.

Two senior members of the Kilifi County government were Thursday grilled by a special team from the County Assembly over the disappearance of Sh45 million from the Health department’s bank account.

Ms Rachel Musyoki, the county’s executive in charge of Health and Chief officer Timothy Malingi were questioned for six hours by the Assembly’s oversight committee, chaired by Speaker Jimmy Kahindi, over their possible role in the funds loss.

During the session on Wednesday, the two officers could not explain how transactions were approved and money deposited to different accounts with "unknown" names.

The questioning was prompted after it emerged that the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) had also launched investigations into the loss of more than Sh30 million from the Kilifi County government's account.

Mr George Ojowi, the anti-graft agency’s deputy director in charge of Upper Coast, said that a multi-agency team led by the banking anti-fraud unit had been sent to the County to follow up on the matter.

“Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Asset Recovery Agency would also assist in investigations on accounts of two companies said to have received the county funds,” he added.

Dr Malingi told the committee that he suspected that somebody may have hacked the password of the department’s bank account, using his name (Malingi’s) to transfer the money in the transactions said to have been done during odd hours of the night.

“I learnt that I had approved the bank transactions from the accountant in the department of finance,” he told the team.

According to the report tabled before the committee, County Secretary Owen Baya had indicated that the money was stolen on September 27.

He said the first meeting to address the issue was held on October 25.

The Speaker questioned why it had taken that long to discuss such a critical matter saying that was a clear indication that there was a calculated plan to steal the public money.

On her part, Ms Musyoki said she was only aware of the Sh30 million said to have been stolen from the department’s bank account, but did not know how the Sh15 million came into the picture.

She also said the scandal in her health department was unearthed on September 29, and that they had already recorded statements with EACC investigators.

Bamba MCA Daniel Mangi, who is also chairman of the Budget committee said the loss of money showed that the department was unable to handle large amount of funds allocated to it in the current financial year.

Mr Kahindi said that many questions are yet to be answered since the officers were pushing blame to the finance department whose executive was unable to honour summons because of ill-health, the county’s accountant and secretary.

The three have been summoned to appear before the committee on November 17, the Speaker added.