The man who uncovered the multi-billion-shilling scandal at the Health ministry is a certified fraud examiner.
Bernard Muchere, an internal auditor at the National Treasury, was seconded to the ministry in June to start investigations whose leaked preliminary report has prompted a national outrage.
He is no stranger to controversy. He conducted a value-for-money audit for construction of the Ronald Ngala Utalii College in the 2014/15 financial year and came up with a damning report. The audit report found out the cost of the project had been inflated by about Sh8.5 billion from the initial Sh1.9 billion.
“The highly inflated RNUC project (Sh10.4 billion) omitted the three or four star application hotel (estimated at a cost of Sh616 million) which was part of the approved KUC, Coast branch project,” the report said.
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Also, the audit indicted the National Treasury and State Department of Commerce and Tourism for allocating and releasing funds to Catering and Tourism Development levy trustees and Ronald Ngala Utalii College.
“These two institutions do not exist in law,” read the report that is now the basis of an investigation by the National Assembly’s Public Investment Committee.
The audit also noted flouting of Government financial regulations to procure the consortium of consultants created a loophole whereby a contract sum was “highly inflated to approximately Sh1.4 billion”.
Muchere has worked in the public service for 32 years, 26 as an auditor carrying out forensic audits in various ministries and state departments.
Recently, he trained 30 DCI officers on fraud examination. In other audits, he reported that procurement processes should not be initiated without confirmation of availability of sufficient funds.
Between 2008 and 2011, he was the auditor in charge of the National Youth Service. He has also worked in the Public Works, Tourism and Industrialisation ministries as well as other stations in the former districts.
