Detectives investigating alleged fraud at the National Youth Service (NYS) are now zeroing in on a cartel at the institution, consisting of current and former civil servants.
Officers from the Cybercrime and Banking Fraud units are said to be targeting 22 former employees of NYS, who were either sacked or transferred to other ministries but failed to honour the transfers.
The 12-member team of investigators are looking into the possibility that the cartel hatched the conspiracy to defraud NYS of Sh695.4 million.
Sources privy to the ongoing probe informed The Standard the investigators have already unearthed evidence of initial loss of Sh23 million on May 19 this year, just a day after the Treasury wired money to the National Youth Service.
It was after the loss of the money that the cartel, on May 21, approved fictitious tenders of Sh695 million in the NYS IFMIS system on payment for road construction materials.
The cartel is said to include senior officials.
“This is a big and well-organised cartel working for some powerful people,” a senior officer informed The Standard yesterday.
A woman listed in the brief prepared by the anti-banking fraud investigators as the one who submitted the fictitious claims denied making such payments, prompting cybercrime investigators to extend their probe.
The woman, according to documents obtained by The Standard, is among officers who had been moved from NYS, but have never reported to the Directorate of Public Service Managament as directed.
Another employee has continued to work at NYS two years after he was dismissed for deserting duties and defying postings to other ministries.
Through an internal memo seen by The Standard dated April this year, Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru had demanded a comprehensive report on the said individuals, majority of who are in the procurement and supply chain management departments.
“It has recently come to my attention that there are officers in NYS who are irregularly in office. Some of these officers have been previously transferred to other ministries and even others dismissed from service,” she said in the memo dated April 9, 2015 addressed to NYS Director General Nelson Githinji.
“I am directing that you give me a detailed explanation of the situation and take disciplinary action against the said officers and send them back to their respective parent ministry,” the memo adds.
