Former Kenya Bureau of Standards MD Charles Ongwae yesterday denied defrauding the government of Sh64 million in illegal waiver of penalties for non-compliance and tax evasion.
Ongwae is facing a several counts of abuse office and breach of trust. In the abuse of office charge, Ongwae is accused of unlawfully authorising the waiver of 15 per cent penalty for import goods without the certificate of conformity from the country of origin.
Importers of such goods are required to pay the 15 per cent of the total custom value according.
Ongwae, in the abuse of trust charge, is accused of unlawfully imposing a penalty of 0.5 per cent instead of 15 per cent of the total customs value on import goods without a conformity certificate.
He is charged jointly with director of quality assurance and inspections Eric Kiptoo. They allegedly committed the offence between January 25 and 26 last year.
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Ongwae appeared before Milimani senior principal magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot two days after 11 co-accused persons appeared in court over related charges.
It is alleged that in January last year, Ongwae, Kiptoo, Samuel Mburu, Hillary Kamau, Ibrahim Twahir and three companies, Gendpie Enterprises, Rupai Trading Limited and Landmark Freight Services Limited conspired to defraud the government of Sh4.3 million.
Others involved in the alleged fraud are Ali Chuphi, Alex Ndiritu, Elizabeth Kimani, Harrison Muchiri and Esther Watene. Ongwae was released on a bail of Sh200,000 with an alternative bond of Sh500,000. Others were released varied bail and bond terms.