The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating four National Treasury officials with millions of shillings in their bank accounts which do not match their salaries.
The anti-graft agency on Wednesday secured court orders freezing Sh37.3 million held separately by the officers Robert Theuri Murage, Faith Kiptis, Esther Ngeru and Doris Simiyu.
EACC has preserved Sh15 million in Kiptis's account, Sh8.5 million in respect of Ngeru, Sh11 million for Theuri’s case, and Sh8.9 million for Simiyu.
Ngeru is a deputy internal auditor general and has been in the post since May 2018.
Kiptis is a principal finance officer whereas Simiyu is an accountant, and so is Theuri.
The development follows hot on the heels of the agency freezing the bank account with Sh18 million maintained by another junior employee Tracy Njoki.
EACC said in a press statement that the investigation followed a tipoff that the four allegedly obtained the money through fraudulent extraneous and facilitation allowances.
Ngeru’s earnings were put under scrutiny after it emerged she received over Sh53 million as imprests, facilitation, and extraneous allowances.
The EACC believes the money cannot match the 57-year-old’s monthly earnings of Sh188,000 for January 2020 to June 2022 under review.
“Preliminary analysis by EACC revealed M-Pesa withdrawals in batches averaging Sh100,000 and Sh50,000 and several cheques withdraws of amounts between Sh500,000 and Sh900,000 leaving a balance of Sh8,550,920 as at July 6,” the agency said.
For Kiptis, the EACC said their calculations show that she earned Sh2.1 million for the two years under review from her Sh71,000 monthly pay.
However, during the period, she received Sh79.6 million as imprests, facilitation, and extraneous allowance.
EACC said the current balance was Sh8.7 million.
“Further analysis of her bank statement reveals that between July 6 and July 8, Sh12,400,000 was transferred to Serena Suites Court Limited and later to Brunell Construction Company Limited between June 14 and July 8,” the EACC said.
Simiyu, the EACC says in her case, similarly received Sh20.2 million yet her earnings of Sh59,000 per month totalled Sh1.7 million during the period.
Theuri received Sh24.7 million.
The 51-year-old was promoted to the post of Accountant I on December 2, 2020.
“The bank account preliminary analysis by the EACC shows that it had M-Pesa withdrawals and several cheques and cash withdrawals leaving a balance of Sh 11,078,601 as of July 5,” EACC said.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
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