Haji’s orders came in light of an internal audit on revenue management at the Milimani Law Courts, which indicated that Sh36,000,334 had been lost/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 7 – The Director of Public Prosecutions on Tuesday ordered a probe into the loss Sh36 million at the Judiciary through fraudulent revenue management.
DPP Noordin Haji also directed the two agencies tasked with the responsibility of investigating the alleged fraud – the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) – to submit status reports every 21 days pending a conclusive report.
Haji’s orders came in light of an internal audit on revenue management at the Milimani Law Courts, which indicated that Sh36,000,334 had been lost through fraudulent revenue management between January 2016 and December 2017.
“There were fraudulent activities in revenue management that led to the loss of Sh36,000,334 through various fraudulent schemes,” the audit is quoted in part.
The internal audit dated July 12 exposed glaring gaps in the management of revenues at the Milimani Law Courts particularly in the Environment and Land Court and High Court Registries.
In his statement to the media on Tuesday, Haji said he had engaged Chief Justice David Maraga on issues raised in the audit, and the CJ raised similar concerns.
The DCI and EACC will also focus on the unilateral extensions of contracts without the application of the due procedure.
In February 2015 for instance, the Chief Risk and Internal Auditor pointed out the variation of Income Tax House Conversion contract by 15 per cent.
“The contract was varied by Sh288.7 million which is 41.5 per cent of the initial contract contrary to Section 31 (c) of the Public Procurement and Disposal Regulations (2016),” DPP’s statement noted.
According to the DPP, the variation of the contract was not backed by approval of the tender committee contrary to Section 47 of the Public Procurement and Disposal Act (2005).
Haji also noted that the contractor had not been duly instructed by the Project Manager overseeing the execution of the contract.
Two contracts entered on September 10, 2015 on the provision of a medical cover and security services will also be interrogated by the DCI and EACC after it emerged that the two were renewed without following the due procedure.
The EACC has been specifically tasked with the investigation into the two contacts – the former, a Sh122.2 million awarded to Jubilee Insurance on January 19, 2017 and the latter awarded to Lavington Security Limited on August 23, 2017.
The DCI will look into the internal audit on the management of revenues at the Milimani Law Courts that could have resulted in the loss of Sh36 million and Income Tax House Conversion contract.
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