Parliament has expanded investigations into the theft of Sh1.6 billion NYS cash after
fresh details indicated 17 more banks handled money for suppliers since 2013.
PAC chairman Nicholas Gumbo said at Parliament buildings on Tuesday that the committee will request the
DCI and EACC
to look into the transactions.
"More than 100 firms were involved in the NYS scam. The total number of banks involved was 28 but 11 have been already cleared," he said.
The chairman said Equity, Diamond, Standard Chartered, I&M, Chase, Bank of Africa, Jamii Bora, Fidelity and Guarantee banks were among the financial institutions that received money.
"We will write to the DCI
to know if they have investigated the banks' involvement in the scandal," he said, but noted they were at the tail end of investigations.
He added that the financial institutions will have to appear before PAC or send written submissions to explain the nature of business the transactions involved.
Gumbo said there was no obvious impropriety and culpability implied on the part of the banks but that the truth will emerge once they tell their sides of the story.
"We are not saying they are culpable but the only way to discount that is through investigations," said the Rarieda MP.
"As a committee we do not intend to sum up our probe and write a report, only for people to later start pointing fingers at X or Y, saying they were involved but never summoned."
The chairman said investigations will exonerate companies and banking institutions that did genuine business and prescribe culpability on those that could have connived to swindle public funds through corrupt dealings.
Gumbo fired a salvo at the EACC accusing the anti-graft agency of failing to conduct thorough investigations to unearth the banks and additional companies that transacted NYS money.
"Investigations ought to have been done by the relevant agencies. It is they that could have come up with the details," he said.
But the chairman said the committee will seek the help of the anti-corruption agency to find out if the Central Bank played any complacent role in the NYS heist.
"This is a matter of huge public concern and the committee is facing time constraints. We are writing to the EACC to establish if any investigation has been done on CBK," he said.
"The amount we are talking about, for sure, runs into billions of shillings more than the figures we have heard in this room."
The amount of money the agency lost had been placed at Sh791 million but a report by Auditor General Edward Ouko raised it to Sh1.6 billion.
Kitutu Masaba MP Timothy Bosire, a committee member, said they needed records of all banks and companies that transacted NYS money.
"It is the nature and extent of investigations that has forced us to go this far," said Bosire.
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This comes after Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge endorsed the prosecution of top Family Bank officials over the fraud at the National Youth Service.
Njoroge wants the bank and its senior staff punished for failing to report to the Financial Reporting Centre the significant transactions by NYS suspects.
Scam suspects , Business man Ben Gethi, former Devolution CS Anne Waiguru, former PS Peter Mangiti and driver John Kago were grilled by the PAC on the matter.
When she met the MPs, Waiguru said that Deputy President William Ruto should also be probed.
She named Ruto's aide
as a key figure in the heist and said he and Gethi made 150 calls at the time of the scandal.
Waiguru also named Ruto's key ally Elgeyo Marakwet senator Kipchumba Murkomen as another important figure who contacted Gethi on several occasions.
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Mang'iti told Parliament he prevented Waiguru and her associates from stealing another Sh3.5 billion from the youths agency.
In a bare-knuckle attack on his former boss, he explained he refused to approve dubious contracts worth the amount.
These had been presented for his signature as the ministry's accounting officer.
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