Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu is talking tough on the Sh5 billion scandal rocking his ministry and is promising to take action on rogue officials who may have siphoned the taxpayers’ money.
A leaked internal audit indicates that the mega scandal involved manipulation of the Integrated Financial Management System, diversion of funds and double payment of goods.
Yesterday Mailu, who was appointed to the ministry late last year, acknowledged the audit report and said the ministry is treating it “very seriously”.
Read:
“The ministry will not condone any acts of corruption and the necessary action will be taken to guarantee and preserve the value of taxpayers money,” Mailu said. He promised further details of the scam once the probe is finalised.
He said the office of the Auditor General is scrutinising the ministry’s 2015-16 accounts. The scandal is another blow to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s efforts to tame run-away corruption just weeks after he read the riot act to state agencies involved in the anti-graft war.
The audit warns that the amount lost could be of monumental proportion because the audit process is still ongoing.
“The audit is experiencing setbacks in terms of facilitative environment contributing to slow delivery of audit work, which is necessary in management, decision making and fraud-risk mitigation,” the report says. For instance, the audit says Sh515.7 million was lost through double payments made under the National Aids Control Programme.
The amount was allegedly used to buy food rations for HIV victims although no payment vouchers were availed for audit. “Some Sh265.7 million was paid to Cooperative Bank of Kenya. The bank cannot be a supplier of food and rations and hence the real payees were not disclosed,” the audit says.
In a separate interim audit sent to Mailu on October 10, the internal auditor raised the red flag that IFMIS records and the manual cash book do not tally. The audit says manual cash book is replete with adjustments, which raises questions about its authenticity. In one instance, Sh800 million allocated for construction of a building was diverted to procure goods and services as well as payment of consultants “who had no contractual agreement with the ministry”.
Yesterday, Health PS Nicholas Muraguri came under fire from the Kenya Union of Journalist for threatening a Business Daily reporter who broke the story yesterday. “Besides dancing on the graves of Kenyans whose lives could have been saved and equipment that were to be procured, Muraguri said the government will consider spying on what journalists are doing,” KUJ secretary general Eric Oduor said.