Former Devolution PS says 'sabotage' led to graft at NYS

Former Devolution principal secretary Peter Mangiti when he appeared before the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee on November 2, 2016 to answer questions on the theft of millions of shillings from National Youth Service. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By  JOHN NJAGI

What you need to know:

  • Mr Mangiti appeared to blame everyone else but himself regarding the theft of taxpayer money, especially on a letter he signed for the promotion of Adan Harakhe.
  • He said Ms Waiguru asked him to sign the letter promoting Mr Harakhe and he had no choice but to oblige.
  • Mr Harakhe later alleged that his password to the Ifmis system had been stolen and used to steal funds from the service.

Former Devolution principal secretary Peter Mangiti on Wednesday blamed the loss of Sh1.8 billion at the National Youth Service on sabotage of leadership structures.

Appearing before a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, Mr Mangiti, who was sacked over the corruption scandal, blamed his former boss Anne Waiguru for engineering the questionable changes at the service.

He was responding to questions from the Public Accounts Committee, which is investigating the loss of millions from the National Youth Service (NYS).

Also Read

MPs, led by the chairman Nicholas Gumbo, put Mr Mangiti to task over his role after he appeared to blame everyone else but himself regarding the theft of taxpayer money, especially on a letter he signed for the promotion of Adan Harakhe, one of the key suspects in the theft.

AUTHORED LETTER

“Mr Harakhe was headhunted by Ms Waiguru with the help of the chairman of the ministerial committee at the ministry of Devolution, Mr Hassan Noor, in a scheme to sabotage the leadership and organisational structure at the NYS, which is the essence of the corruption that took place,” he said.

Mr Mangiti said Ms Waiguru, who reportedly authored the letter promoting Mr Harakhe, was his boss, citing executive orders by President Kenyatta that all PSs were to report to Cabinet secretaries, who had executive oversight over ministries.

This, he said, meant that he was under a “legal obligation" to follow the instructions of his boss.

He said Ms Waiguru asked him to sign the letter promoting Mr Harakhe and he had no choice but to oblige.

Mr Harakhe, who was a deputy director-general, a position created for him as it did not exist in the NYS Act, has been cited as the centre of the scam, using his access to the Integrated Financial Management Information (Ifmis) system to manipulate the amount of money paid to suppliers by adding zeroes to them.

Mr Harakhe later alleged that his password to the Ifmis system had been stolen and used to steal funds from the service.

In the headlines