Former Devolution CS Anne Waiguru’s move to make NYS deputy director Adan Harakhe answerable to her contributed to a scheme to defraud the NYS, legislators were told yesterday.
Former National Youth Service director general Nelson Githinji told the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee it was hard for him to detect suspicious acts of fraud because he was rendered powerless by his deputy being answerable to Waiguru.
Githinji also dismissed Harakhe’s claims that he and former Devolution PS Peter Mangiti masterminded the plot to defraud the NYS of Sh791 million through awarding contracts to their relatives.
Githinji termed Harakhe’s allegations “fictitious and thoughtless”.
He accused Harakhe of approving 18 fraudulent transactions amounting to Sh695.4 million through the Integrated Financial Management Information System.
“The letter of appointment for Harakhe on November 27, 2014, indicates he assumed direct jurisdiction of Procurement, Human Resource, Finance and Administration. The methodology of deployment indicated I was to direct and supervise him. In reality, he was directly reporting to then CS Waiguru,” Githinji said.
He said he was not allowed to attend the ministerial tender committee meeting that made key decisions for the NYS, including procurement.
“I was not a member of the ministerial tender committee during the entire period of my tenure at NYS. I can provide minutes showing Harakhe attended the meetings,” Githinji said.
Harakhe last week alleged that tech-savvy officers at Treasury’s IFMIS department helped Githinji and Mangiti hack into the NYS system and make fictitious claims for their companies to steal taxpayers’ money.
But Githinji told the committee, chaired by Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo, that Harakhe even accessed the IFMIS system before his formal appointment as an authority to approve spending, which was unlawful.
Githinji tabled IFMIS transactions Harakhe approved as evidence.
Harakhe had also told MPs and the CID that his IFMIS password was hacked, leading to fraudulent payments at NYS.
“Claims that his IFMIS password was hacked are false and alarmist. This assertion assumes there were predetermined outcomes expected out of the procurement processes,” Githinji said.
DCI boss Ndegwa Muhoro on Wednesday dismissed Harakhe’s claim that his password was stolen and insisted the former NYS deputy director should be prosecuted in connection with the NYS scandal.
The meeting with the committee was then conducted in private after Githinji said he has confidential information that could help unearth fraudulent transactions in the NYS scandal.