The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is set to roll out asset recovery in Siaya, after completion of investigations into misappropriation of funds.
The push could see a number of current and former county staff, as well as contractors, lose their assets, should the commission prove that they were fraudulently acquired or they are proceeds of economic crimes.
Commissioner Cecilia Mutuku said Siaya has been on the radar of the EACC and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) over mismanagement of public resources for a while.
High end houses and cars in Siaya, Nairobi and Mombasa have been identified for recovery, with the watchdog agency intent on passing a clear signal to the public that corruption does not pay.
In an audit report tabled by a special task force last month, the amount that was misappropriated is to the tune of billions of shillings.
Speaking during the launch of the EACC Corruption Risk Assessment (CRA) of the county operations in Siaya, Dr Mutuku said the commission will leave no stone unturned in its quest.
“Our investigations are going on in Siaya and some other counties where there is alleged misappropriation of funds. The commission has many roles, including recovery of the alleged ill-gotten property,” said Dr Mutuku.
She defended the commission over alleged delays, saying the investigations are going on all over the country.
“It is true that investigations might have taken long in Siaya, however, the commission is working round the clock to ensure nothing is left out. We shall table a report of the investigations and proceed to take actions, including arraigning the suspects in court,” she added.
The CRA will run for two weeks with the aim of sealing all the loopholes that aid corruption.
Mr Chris Owalla, from the civil society in Siaya accused the EACC of failing to act as envisaged in the Constitution.
“The Constitution has given the integrity body powers to prosecute the perpetrators. What we are seeing are endless investigations and no action against the suspects even when evidence and witnesses are available,” said Mr Owalla.
The task force, led by former Auditor General Edward Ouko established myriad financial misappropriations in the last regime.
In the 2020/2021 financial year, the report revealed that a total of Sh1.07 billion was paid to individuals; which saw Sh780.6 million paid to various individual staff from the county recurrent accounts and an additional Sh296 million paid to individuals through imprests. The task force also established questionable expenditure of Sh252.8 million between July 1 and July 13, 2022, shortly before the new administration took over office.
The internal audit report of August 2021, indicates that transactions totaling Sh332.8 million made from the imprest bank account did not qualify as petty cash due to their magnitude and nature.
The Ouko-led team said the expenditures were not clear and cannot be substantiated.
There was also a possible existence of “ghost workers” in which some people were paid salaries and wages without a proper framework.
“We need a special audit of the county employees both on a casual and permanent and pensionable basis. It is common knowledge that we must have casual workers; however, the records must be clear on the number. This is because the county incurs an average of Sh53 million monthly on manual payroll,” said Mr Ouko when he presented the report.
The county government rolls out payroll on two different platforms; the staff who have the personal numbers are paid through the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database as required, while up to 5,000 who have not received personal numbers and other casuals are paid through the manual payroll.
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