EACC seeks orders to change list of Sh1.7b beneficiaries

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has now moved to court seeking orders to substitute the list of 4,734 persons listed as beneficiaries of the Sh1.7 billion compensation of fishermen affected by the Lamu Port-South Sudan – Ethiopia – Transport Corridor project (LAPSSET) project, replaced with the validated list of genuine beneficiaries.

This is after investigations recently concluded by the anti-graft body uncovered some 569 ghost beneficiaries sifted out of the initial list of 4,734 people who were on the verge of irregularly pocketing over Sh137. 5 million.

In a media address in Mombasa, EACC spokesman Eric Ngumbi , who is also the Head of Corporate affairs and Communication at the Commission, said in the application filed before the Court of Appeal, that the Commission has informed the Court that it has completed investigations into the alleged fraud and identified ghost and ineligible beneficiaries in the list.

In the Court papers, EACC says that the list of beneficiaries earlier adopted by the Court through a Consent Agreement of the parties in the court case is marred with irregularities and ought to be substituted with the revised list following the EACC probe.

“The EACC investigation was in response to a complaint received at the Commission’s Mombasa Regional Offices on April 4, 2023 alleging corruption and misappropriation of public funds in the compensation of fishermen affected by the LAPSSET Project which was awarded by the Malindi High Court in May 2018 for the disruption of both cultural and economic activities of the fishing community in Lamu,” Ngumbi told Journalists in Mombasa.

In the process, he said the names of 569 ghost beneficiaries were sneaked into the list, edging out some 433 genuine beneficiaries.