Sh37 million belonging to junior Treasury employees frozen
The High Court on Wednesday froze more than Sh37.3 million belonging to four junior employees at the National Treasury suspected to have been stolen from the government in the guise of allowances and facilitation fees.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) obtained orders freezing the funds in several accounts belonging to Robert Theuri Murage, Faith Kiptis, Esther Ngeru and Doris Simiyu, bringing to Sh55 million the total amount preserved by the High Court, pending conclusion of investigations.
The latest order comes just a month after the court ordered the freezing of Sh18 million belonging to Tracy Njoki King’e for six months to allow the anti-graft body conclude a probe on whether the funds were stolen from the government.
According to the agency, Ms Ngeru, an internal auditor at the National Treasury earning a salary of Sh188,000, received Sh53 million as imprests, facilitation and extraneous allowance between January 2020 and June this year.
The EACC says she has been making withdrawals from her M-Pesa account in batches of Sh100,000 and Sh50,000 and cheque withdrawals leaving a balance of Sh8.5 million.
On the other hand, Ms Kiptis has allegedly received Sh79.5 million for similar allowances between the same period. She has a balance of Sh8.7 million in her M-Pesa account and another Sh7 million in two bank accounts.
Ms Simiyu, an accountant, allegedly received Sh20 million for imprest, facilitation and extraneous allowance between January 2020 and June this year. She had a balance of Sh8.9 million by the time the freeze order was issued.
As for Mr Murage, the EACC says he received Sh24.7 million and withdrew the money leaving a balance of Sh11 million.
The investigator said preliminary findings raised suspicion that considering their salaries, the credits into their bank accounts were disproportionate with the known sources of income, hence the money could be proceeds of corruption.