A finance officer at the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs has come out to reveal details of how monies are lost at the National Youth Service (NYS).
Bernard Masiga, who is also a suspect in the ongoing Ksh9 Billion scandal probe, told The Standard that he has managed funds for NYS over the past two years and in that time he has witnessed major loopholes that create room for theft.
Masinga told reporters that one of the major irregularities at the youth empowerment programme was the resurgence of unpaid vouchers.
"It is hard to know which ones are legitimate," he narrated, adding that it was near impossible to pick out forgeries from the mound of payment documents.
[caption caption="File image of CS Margaret Kobia with suspended NYS Director-General Richard Ndubai (second from left)"]
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According to Masinga, thousands of the unpaid vouchers are carried forward as pending bills which the NYS officials then alter in collusion with the suppliers before they are paid out.
The officer further elaborated that NYS assets remained unaccounted for and sloppily tracked.
He explained that most of the equipment, including large trucks, were nowhere in the records of the body.
"We, for example, lost two trucks to some senior official immediately after they arrived in the country. They just vanished. It gets to be very stressful being here," he stated.
Mr Masinga added that the process of tendering for bids was basically ignored and all such procuring measures were done casually.
He described that most of the suppliers were merely contacted by phone and a simple inquiry as to whether they supply a certain item is enough for them to get the business.
The ministry official concluded that the only way the menace at the NYS could be dealt with is by disbanding it.
He, along with co-accused James Thuita Nderitu (owner of Active Electrons Africa Limited) had applied for anticipatory bail at the High Court but was denied.
[caption caption="File image of NYS suspects arraigned in court on May 29, 2018"]
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