Former PS wants ‘whole day’ to give evidence

Former Devolution Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti has informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that he needs a whole day to give evidence and warned that he would carry with him a pick-up load of documents on what he knows about the National Youth Service (NYS) corruption scandal.

The parliamentary oversight team has been investigating the loss of Sh791 million, which is the figure in the public domain, but has reportedly evolved fast to Sh1.8 billion and could well end up bursting the Sh5 billion mark, if the evidence adduced before PAC is anything to go by.

Committee vice-chairman Jackson Rop, also the Kipkelion West MP, said the committee was considering whether to grant Mr Mangiti his wish given the committee was time barred as it planned on completing the investigations and table a report in the National Assembly before breaking for the December recess.

Investigations by PAC, which has so far interviewed dozens of witnesses, have narrowed down to Dr Mangiti and his boss at the ministry, former Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru, while two other suspects, Ms Josephine Kabura and businessman John Kago, are also expected to offer crucial evidence.

During an informal discussion of the committee following postponement of sittings after top officials of Standard Chartered Bank and Barclays Bank, in whose banks some of the suspects in the scam opened accounts and stashed some of the loot, failed to appear, MPs present noted that Dr Mangiti appeared to be under pressure as the heat was likely to be turned on him.

Although Ms Waiguru has been mentioned on several occasions as having engineered the looting at the NYS, or at least set in place the systems that made it possible, there appears to be little paperwork indicating that she sanctioned some of the controversial decisions that apparently abetted corruption at the NYS in her own signature.

On the other hand, Dr Mangiti’s signature appeared to have been imprinted in virtually all of the controversial decisions, placing him at the centre of the mega scam.

DUBIOUS COMPANIES

According to evidence given before the committee, which has so far called up dozens of witnesses, Dr Mangiti signed the letter appointing Adan Harakhe as senior Deputy Director-General of the NYS, despite the position not existing in the statutes.

He also reportedly authored the letter that Mr Harakhe said authorised payment of millions of shillings to dubious companies and authority to approve payments through the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), which was reportedly used to engineer the fraud.

The former PS is also reported to have written withdrawing former NYS Director-General Nelson Githinji as an Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) holder and then reinstating him again, itself a suspicious directive since, as accounting officer, he was entitled to approving all transactions and payments.

There also appears to be no minutes of a meeting at Ms Waiguru’s office, in which she reportedly directed that Mr Harakhe take charge of all key departments at the NYS including Finance, and that Dr Githinji handle only policy issues, which was months before it was discovered that Mr Harakhe’s IFMIS password had been “stolen” and used to authorise fraudulent transactions.

Former Finance Director at the NYS, Samuel Wachenje, who was also the alternate AIE holder and had his signatures as having approved the fraudulent payment of Sh791 million to three companies associated with Ms Kabura, said Ms Waiguru directed that the companies be paid, but again could not produce a written circular to that effect.

The former powerful minister, who has always referred to herself as a whistleblower, may yet get nailed in the scam should evidence given before the committee in camera generate the necessary documentation to link her to the scandal.

Both Dr Githinji and Mr Wachenje requested the parliamentary team to go to a closed session to give “sensitive information” in which it was, according to a source, alleged Ms Waiguru’s four firms won tenders worth Sh3 billion.