The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has revealed plans to recover all the funds unscrupulous individuals earned in salaries using fake certificates.
Bishop David Oginde, the EACC chairman, disclosed during the annual Citam Church business forum on October 28 that several people with fake certificates have already been taken to court and the commission had recovered monies they were paid during the entire period they worked.
Some of the properties, which the individuals acquired during the period they worked, were also seized.
“We’re discovering many people have gotten jobs in the public and private sector using fake certificates, Oginde said. “Several of them have been taken to court and we have recovered the monies they were paid during the time they served under those certificates.”
The chairman observed that some people in the public sector were paid to the tune of hundreds of millions as a result of using a fake certificate to get a high-paying job.
Oginde also discussed some of the challenges the commission faces in battling corruption, which he claims is a very expensive vice to tackle.
He added, “Investigating corruption, especially big corruption, is a very expensive exercise. Many of the big corruption have international connections so you find that money that is stolen locally was stashed in another country and for you to investigate you require officers to travel to those nations and that is very expensive. The budget that we are given does not enable us to do our work to the best of our ability.”
Oginde’s latest comments came as the commission stepped up efforts to curb the loss of public funds through corruption, which remains one of the biggest threats to the Kenya Kwanza government.
One of the recent high-profile sweeps by the EACC was when they nabbed several county officials in Bomet County as part of an investigation into the alleged embezzlement of KSh1.2 billion.
According to EACC spokesperson Eric Ngumbi, the arrested officials were suspected of being the masterminds behind some fraudulent payments channelled through companies to their family members and proxies.
In another instance, the EACC nabbed four suspects behind a scheme to embezzle KSh 4 million by falsely claiming it was for the commemoration of World War I.
The Bigger Picture: As the anti-graft body ups its efforts to curb corruption, several sectors in the public service are likely to be under a larger spotlight. This is because a recent report emerged flagging Human Resource Management as the most corrupt department in public service.
Human Resource sub-fields where corruption is most prevalent include; Human Resource Planning, Payroll Management Recruitment and Selection, Placement, Deployment, and Transfers, Training and Development, Performance Management, Management of Career Progression, and Compensation of Staff.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE