A damning Auditor General's (AG) report on national government expenditures covering the 2016-2017 period, disclosed a deficit of Ksh 300 million linked to new recruits.
AG, Edward Ouko, claimed that senior officers at the Kenya Police College, Kiganjo, and Embakasi General Service Unit Training School had deducted allowances meant for recruits illegally.
The report further alleged that the young cadets were coerced into signing documents stating that they had each received the full amounts allocated to them.
"These deductions border on criminal acts on the part of those officers who sanctioned forceful recovery from helpless recruits" Ouko divulged in his report.
He further added that the forceful deductions were not only irregular but criminal as well since it contravened the Public Finance Management Act (2012) which prohibits re-allocation of funds from wages to non-wages expenditure.
On their part, the police chiefs maintained that the money was spent on barrack maintenance, haircuts and medical fees.
Ouko went on to add that the 10,000 recruits that were taken in by the police forces in May 2017, were each robbed of Ksh 31,384, which was money meant to be paid out to them as allowances at the end of their training.
A detailed forensic investigation of the accounts in which the senior commanders claimed to have remitted the missing funds bore no fruits, as Ouko was unable to trace the Ksh 300 million.
The officers in question claimed to have deposited the funds at a local bank, which was authorised to disburse the funds to the recruits, but there were no records availed to corroborate their claims.
