Treasury staff fingered over fake imprests

Four officials at the National Treasury are on the spot after an investigation by detectives from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) established that they could have siphoned approximately Sh190 million from their employer through illegal imprests and allowances.

The quartet: Faith Jamita Kiptis, a principal finance officer, Esther Wangechi Ngeru, a deputy internal auditor general and accountants Doris Simiyu and Robert Theuri are being investigated over allegations of embezzlement of public funds and abuse of office.

They are accused of pocketing tens of millions of shillings between 2020 and 2022 through fraudulent extraneous and facilitation allowances. Yesterday, the quartet suffered a setback after Lady Justice Esther Maina of the High Court’s Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Division issued orders sought by the commission freezing Sh37,347,598 found in bank accounts to facilitate further investigations.

Detectives state Kiptis, despite receiving a monthly pay of Sh71,000, totaling Sh2,130,000 for the period  under investigations, received a total of Sh83.56 million in imprests, facilitation and extraneous allowance.

“The commission’s preliminary findings have raised reasonable suspicion that considering the respondent’s (Kiptis) salary, the credits into her bank account are disproportionate to her known legitimate sources of income and could have been obtained through corrupt conduct,” EACC said.