Hand over NYS files after probe, detectives told

The likelihood of prosecution over the hacking of government computers at the National Youth Service increased on Wednesday after the public prosecutor joined the investigation.

Mr Keriako Tobiko, the Director of Public Prosecutions, has asked the chief of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Mr Ndegwa Muhoro, to give him the files and findings on the hacking of the government financial system called Ifmis.

Serious questions had been asked about financial transactions at the Ministry of Devolution, with the Central Bank querying the payment of tens of millions of shillings within a short time.

In defending her ministry, Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru said officials had detected an attempt to hack into the computers and authorise illegal payments of nearly Sh700 million. She also said she had asked Mr Muhoro to investigate.

Ms Waiguru is currently in Colombia to receive an excellence award on behalf of the government for service in the public sector.

Yesterday, Mr Tobiko asked Mr Muhoro to give him the files upon completion of investigations to enable him take “appropriate action”.

“From media reports I understand that you have commenced investigations into the matter at the request of Cabinet secretary, Devolution and Planning. I write, therefore, to request that at the conclusion of the ongoing investigation, the resultant inquiry files be forwarded to this office for perusal and appropriate action,” said Mr Tobiko.

Detectives from DCI headquarters have been on the case since June 5.

Investigators have since established that passwords of key officials were used to make illegal entries into National Youth Service computer systems, which could have resulted in the theft of Sh695,400,000.

An audit showed the questionable entries were supposedly approved by newly appointed NYS senior Deputy Director-General Aden Harakhe. He has denied doing so.

The report also reveals that a Mrs Regina Nyambura Mungai submitted the entries but she has also denied any involvement.

“Consequently, it’s only the cyber-crime report which can prove contrary by identifying forensically the IP address of the particular computer used to make the entries,” investigators concluded in a report by the Banking Fraud Unit (BFU).

Cybercrime detectives have since taken over the matter.

“Six computers which were seized from employees of NYS are still being analysed at DCI’s cyber-crime unit to establish the person who made the fraudulent entries. Sixteen statements have, to date, been recorded from the staff of NYS and the Devolution ministry,” said BFU boss Joseph Mugwanja, who signed the report.

Six companies are being investigated over what is being described as attempted theft of Sh695.4 million from NYS.

The companies, whose registration details raise questions, are owned by only three people.

Police have categorised the case as “conspiracy to commit fraud”.

Mr Mugwanja said: “Although no evidence has been obtained to reflect loss of funds in respect of this particular commitments, the entries made in the NYS Ifmis system, if indeed they were not made by the AIE holder, Mr Adan Harakhe, then amounts to a case to defraud NYS the amount committed through fictitious supply orders of road construction and building materials.”

Ms Waiguru said she called in the police after realising that 21 transactions amounting to more than S 995 million had been approved by Mr Harakhe, who has authority over such payments.

In conducting the investigations, police said three transactions amounting to Sh133 million “went through the laid down e-procurement and were eventually awarded through a letter signed by the principal secretary”.

The police also found out that: “Ifmis audit trail in respect of the other 18 indicates that they were all approved by AIE holder, Mr Harakhe, after they were submitted by Mrs Mungai, a requester. Both have disputed making these entries in the Ifmis system.”

The report also identifies the six companies that had been awarded the tenders.

Ms Waiguru, on Thursday last week, called a press conference during which she disclosed that an attempt had been made to steal Sh826 million from NYS.

She was reacting to press reports that the Central Bank of Kenya had questioned payments since last November of Sh665 million by NYS, including payments authorised by Mr Harakhe.