The Ethics And anti Corruption Comission (EACC) has reported the arrest two Nairobi County Officials in allegations of diverting county revenue through manipulation of the Nairobi Revenue Services portal.
The suspects are Daniel Odidi Ganje, the Officer-In-Charge of the Data Office at St. Peter Cleavers Revenue offices in Starehe, and John Gachagua Mburu, a Mt. Kenya University Student on attachment at the same office.
According to EACC, the suspects had asked the complainant, to deposit the money into a private bank account belonging to the student In exchange, he would be allowed to pay a lesser amount.
The Complaint had sought to pay Kes. 45,000 annual parking fees for his commercial vehicles.
The suspects entered the registration details of the complainant’s vehicle into the revenue portal which indicated full payment of the parking fees for the whole year, despite not having paid anything to the County.
Notably, diversion of revenue is prevalent in several county governments and is one of the reasons why most devolved units do not meet their revenue targets.
The Commission observed that, Investigations undertaken in the counties so far reveal that some senior county officials use students on attachment/ internship as conduits for theft of public funds.
Further, some students are compelled to register companies or business names which are later introduced into the IFMIS platform to facilitate execution of fraudulent schemes.
Upon payments to those proxy companies, the students are asked to withdraw the monies sent or diverted to the bank accounts and deliver the same to their masters.
