Kenyans outraged at Nicholas Muraguri's threats to journalist over Sh5bn scandal story

[kilam]

Kenyans have expressed outrage and shock at the news that Sh5 billion was looted by top Ministry of Health officials through manipulation of the Integrated Financial Management System, diversion of funds, and double payment for goods.

This follows a leaked internal audit report that showed the theft— five times the infamous Sh791 million National Youth Service scandal— also involved payments of millions of shillings to phony suppliers in the financial year (2015/2016).

(READ: Revealed: Taxpayers lose Sh5bn in NYS-style Afya House theft)

More anger was expressed on online platforms such as Twitter over Health Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri's threats to a Business Daily journalist for doing the story on the graft in Afya House.

Mugambi M'Mutegi @PeterMutegi tweeted: “The Ministry of Health Sh5 billion scandal on the cover of today's @BD_Africa makes the NYS one look like child's play.”

Another, Felista Wangari ‏@FelistaWangari shared the link of the story online and said: “The story the Ministry of Health doesn't want Kenyans to read: Taxpayers lose Sh5bn in NYS-style Afya House theft”

Ory Okolloh Mwangi, who tweets as ‏@kenyanpundit, said: “PS Muraguri had threatened the author of the Ministry of Health theft story.”

The Nation reached out to Dr Muraguri, who did not pick up the calls but instead sent a message: “Will revert.”

This comes after revelations of another elaborate plan to steal nearly Sh18.2 million in forged vouchers for fictitious payments by procurement officers in the Ministry of Health and those in the lab in May this year.

The payments were for “stationery, chemicals and reagents” in the National Quality Control Laboratory (NQCL).

However, these payments were intercepted by some of the directors of NQCL otherwise eight companies would have pocketed over Sh18.2 million.

Seven of these companies were purporting to supply chemicals and reagent while one — Spring-Line Agencies Ltd — was to supply stationery worth Sh795, 000 to the government facility.

On this, the Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu said it was being investigated.

RESIGN

The Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) has demanded the immediate resignation and prosecution of Dr Muragari for defending wanton corruption at the Ministry and threats to a Business Daily journalist.

“Thousands of Kenyans die every second due to lack of drugs and medical equipment in our public hospitals, but a public officer who is entrusted with this very significant responsibility of saving lives can afford to defend the loss of Sh5 billion with threats to the media,” said KUJ secretary general Erick Oduor.

He added: “Besides dancing on the graves of Kenyans whose lives could have been saved by the drugs and equipment that were to be procured by the diverted funds, Dr Muraguri disclosed that the government will instead consider hacking into systems of newsrooms, and spy what journalists are doing.”

Mr Oduor called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to: “Demand accountability from such public officers who believe that espionage in newsrooms is the only cure to corruption cancer in government ministries.”

Outrage at Muraguri threats over Sh5bn theft story

 

[kilam]

Revealed: Taxpayers lose Sh5bn in NYS-style Afya House theft

Top Ministry of Health officials have stolen more than Sh5 billion in an NYS-style mega corruption scandal involving diversion of funds, double payment for goods, and manipulation of the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMIS).
A leaked internal audit report says the theft, which is five times the infamous Sh791 million National Youth Service scandal, also involved payments of millions of shillings to phony suppliers in the financial year (2015/2016).

The auditors say the amounts lost could be higher because they have yet to complete work on the ministry’s transactions for the year.

“The small sample covered is an indicator that there could be a wider scheme wherein the ministry incurred huge losses to the detriment of service delivery to the public,” the audit report addressed to Health secretary Cleopa Mailu says.

Top on the list of fraudulent transactions identified in the audit report was the diversion of Sh889 million meant to be disbursed to county governments to support the free maternity care programme and its use in the purchase of phantom mobile medical clinics for urban slums.

A large chunk of the money (Sh800 million) was paid to Estama Investment Limited, a company whose owners are not revealed in official records at the Registrar of Companies, to supply 100 portable medical clinics that have yet to be delivered four months after the financial year ended.

Estama was paid the money in three instalments, including Sh400 million on June 27, a transaction for which the payment voucher could not be found during the audit. Even more questionable is the fact that Estama raised a separate purchase order for Sh200 million on June 30 and got paid the same day.

WATCH: Ministry of Health on the spot as Sh160 million for children's vaccines unaccounted for

Could not explain

Izaq Odongo, the head of curative and rehabilitative services at the ministry and on whose behalf payments for the clinics were signed, said the equipment arrived at the port of Mombasa but has not been distributed a year since being shipped in.

He could not explain the delay or even why the ministry made the full payment before the equipment was delivered.

The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Nicholas Muraguri, did not deny the existence of the audit report, but dismissed the author as “incapable of understanding how government works,” even as he threatened her with espionage and snooping on her private communication.

“I mean, you don’t know government. We can get what you write even before you publish it, including getting print-shots and screenshots of the story. Someone can be reading your messages while sitting here. If there is a need to hack Nation’s system we can. We can even confirm how much money is in your account now,” the PS said when asked to respond to the audit queries.

READ: Kenyans outraged at PS's threat to journalist over story on Sh5b NYS-type scam

The audit also found that Estama was paid despite not meeting the Kenya Revenue Authority’s requirements on the use of electronic tax register (ETR) receipts, tax compliance and PIN number.

Revealed: Taxpayers lose Sh5bn in NYS-style Afya House theft

 

[Juakali1980]

Kenyans have expressed outrage and shock at the news that Sh5 billion was looted by top Ministry of Health officials through manipulation of the Integrated Financial Management System, diversion of funds, and double payment for goods.

This follows a leaked internal audit report that showed the theft— five times the infamous Sh791 million National Youth Service scandal— also involved payments of millions of shillings to phony suppliers in the financial year (2015/2016).

(READ: Revealed: Taxpayers lose Sh5bn in NYS-style Afya House theft)

More anger was expressed on online platforms such as Twitter over Health Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri's threats to a Business Daily journalist for doing the story on the graft in Afya House.

Mugambi M'Mutegi @PeterMutegi tweeted: “The Ministry of Health Sh5 billion scandal on the cover of today's @BD_Africa makes the NYS one look like child's play.”

Another, Felista Wangari ‏@FelistaWangari shared the link of the story online and said: “The story the Ministry of Health doesn't want Kenyans to read: Taxpayers lose Sh5bn in NYS-style Afya House theft”

Ory Okolloh Mwangi, who tweets as ‏@kenyanpundit, said: “PS Muraguri had threatened the author of the Ministry of Health theft story.”

The Nation reached out to Dr Muraguri, who did not pick up the calls but instead sent a message: “Will revert.”

This comes after revelations of another elaborate plan to steal nearly Sh18.2 million in forged vouchers for fictitious payments by procurement officers in the Ministry of Health and those in the lab in May this year.

The payments were for “stationery, chemicals and reagents” in the National Quality Control Laboratory (NQCL).

However, these payments were intercepted by some of the directors of NQCL otherwise eight companies would have pocketed over Sh18.2 million.

Seven of these companies were purporting to supply chemicals and reagent while one — Spring-Line Agencies Ltd — was to supply stationery worth Sh795, 000 to the government facility.

On this, the Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu said it was being investigated.

RESIGN

The Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) has demanded the immediate resignation and prosecution of Dr Muragari for defending wanton corruption at the Ministry and threats to a Business Daily journalist.

“Thousands of Kenyans die every second due to lack of drugs and medical equipment in our public hospitals, but a public officer who is entrusted with this very significant responsibility of saving lives can afford to defend the loss of Sh5 billion with threats to the media,” said KUJ secretary general Erick Oduor.

He added: “Besides dancing on the graves of Kenyans whose lives could have been saved by the drugs and equipment that were to be procured by the diverted funds, Dr Muraguri disclosed that the government will instead consider hacking into systems of newsrooms, and spy what journalists are doing.”

Mr Oduor called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to: “Demand accountability from such public officers who believe that espionage in newsrooms is the only cure to corruption cancer in government ministries.”

Outrage at Muraguri threats over Sh5bn theft story

Rampant corruption in Tanzania keeps fruits of the many in hands of the few

Fears are growing that endemic graft in Tanzania will deny the majority of its people a fair share of the wealth generated by the country’s natural gas riches


[img class="badge__logo" alt="Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation" src="https://static.theguardian.com/commercial/sponsor/global-development/global-development/logo.png">About this content
Hannah McNeish in Dar es Salaam

Wednesday 29 July 2015 06.46 EDT Last modified on Thursday 30 July 2015 05.31 EDT

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Google+
• Share on WhatsApp
• Share on Messenger

Shares
241
241

Save for later Article saved
In Dar es Salaam, framed posters of Tanzania’s president, Jakaya Kikwete, top the list of street-side bestsellers, outstripping images of Pope Francis, Jesus, Barack Obama and the country’s founding father, Julius Nyerere.

It is no real surprise given that all government offices are expected to have a picture of the president hanging prominently on the walls.

However, in this peaceful yet poor east African nation, poster seller Yanga Idrissa says that if he wants to get his Kikwete posters on official walls, a certain degree of sharp practice is required. He must be ready to undercut competitors, and bribe officials – and falsify receipts on their behalf – enabling them to claim bogus expenses. Even when selling to a police station.

“They say I have to sell them for 30,000 shillings (£9.59), but make the receipt out for 45,000 so that 15,000 goes to the police,” says Idrissa who, like many Tanzanians interviewed on the street, initially demands cash to answer questions.

In 2013, Tanzania was the second biggest recipient of foreign aid in sub-Saharan Africa, receiving $3.43bn (£2.19m) from donors. Despite years of relative peace, and economic growth of more than 5% annually for the past decade, around two-thirds of its nearly 49 million people still live in poverty.


Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Headlines were made in Tanzania when the public accounts committee recommended the prime minister and other top officials resign over alleged fraud. Photograph: Daniel Hayduk/AFP/Getty Images
Tanzania has been slipping down Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index, and now ranks 119th out of 175 countries. Evidence of official corruption has been mounting, raising fears that natural gas riches will fail to translate into wider wealth. That is not good news for a country ranked 159th out of 187 in the human development index.

Late last year, donors suspended $490m in general budget support after it was revealed that ministers had siphoned up to $180m from the central bank, using energy company escrow accounts.

“When this came out, people were watching it like the World Cup final. And now, people know how dirty and corrupt their leaders are,” said one international analyst, who did not want to be named for fear of retaliation for speaking out.

Tanzanians are due to elect a new president and parliament in October and the combination of entrenched corruption and an increasingly repressive environment for activists and civil society has worried many analysts. The Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party has ruled the country since independence in 1961.

“It’s like a supermarket where 60% of the goods are stolen but no one knows anything about it and everyone’s kept on,” said an international conservationist, who has previously received anonymous threats for speaking out about rampant poaching.

The corruption is endemic: a government census released in June showed that Tanzania is at the centre of Africa’s ivory crisis, losing 60% of its elephants in just five years. Between 2009 and 2014 the number of elephants dropped from 109,051 to 43,330. When an annual birth rate of 5% is taken into account, the number of dead is 85,181.

Tanzania’s biggest foreign exchange earner, although discoveries of natural gas off its south coast could prove lucrative from about 2025.

“My biggest worry is going the Nigerian way, whereby very few people become rich and the majority remain as poor as they were before,” says Zitto Kabwe, an opposition politician and former chair of the parliamentary committee on public accounts.

Kabwe is concerned about “the lack of institutions to curb corruption”, and a petroleum act recently rushed through parliament after opposition members were suspended.

Home affairs minister Mathias Chikawe acknowledges corruption is a big problem.


Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Poster sellers say they have to issue false receipts to corrupt officials when selling images of the president to Tanzanian state offices. Photograph: Hannah McNeish
“Corruption makes people close their eyes when they should keep them open. We need to fight that more than anything else because it’s making efforts in other sectors fail,” he said.

Advertisement
Officially, efforts are being made to stamp out graft. One of Dar es Salaam’s most impressive buildings is the headquarters of the anti-corruption agency, the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB).

“This building cost the government to the tune of 4bn shillings,” said PCCB director general Edward Hoseah just after a ceremony marking the donation of computers from China. The computers were worth almost as much as the building, and PCCB staff said they already had enough machines.

But Hoseah noted that the UK’s Serious Fraud Office and the US Federal Bureau of Investigations also had good facilities.

“If you want to captivate your staff, to motivate, give them the best, and the government has given us the best, and I think it must be applauded,” he said.

The expensive 4x4s clogging the car park were also “irrelevant” as the bureau was “making progress”, he added.

One local journalist, who said the PCCB paid him 20,000 shillings for a “transportation fee” to come to the ceremony – double what editors would pay for any story – said that it was near impossible to extract information from the bureau.

He said he could only get comments if he first got sources in the government to tip him off, so that he could ask very specific questions.

“If you face them with facts, then they have to open their mouths,” he said.

Hoseah said that, unlike journalists, it was not his job to go public during investigations.

A PCCB press officer later threatened a fixer for three international journalists with jail if “damaging stories” appeared. She called the journalists spies.


Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Street vendors and taxi drivers in Tanzania’s economic capital Dar es Salaam scratch out a living in a country where two-thirds live on less than $1.25 a day. Photograph: Hannah McNeish
Semkae Kilonzo, who runs Tanzania’s Policy Forum, says that high-level officials tend to remain immune from any prosecution, while anti-corruption efforts focus on less powerful district officers.

“The PCCB has officers all over the country who are chasing down doctors and nurses for taking bribes and it’s shameful,” said the international analyst.

Impunity even for “repeat offenders” sends a message “that it is risk-free to misappropriate public funds on a huge scale and the state has no moral authority to caution against wrongdoing”, said Kilonzo, adding that the public was increasingly offended by corruption but had not yet organised to take action.

Back at the PCCB, the journalist who was paid to attend the ceremony seems resigned to the country’s fate.

“Before gas, we had diamonds, we had gold, we had tanzanite, but what did we get out of that?” he asks, while waiting for a shared lift with other reporters lest a taxi fare should cut in to his anti-corruption “attendance fee”.

• 
  As you can see not even your own country is immune to corruption...same tricks they use in Kenya are the same tricks they use in BONGOLAND...FYI

 

[MK254]

Huyu asipopigwa chini Jubilee waisahau kura yangu. Am so angry with these people. Wengine tunafanya kazi kwa bidii na uzalendo wakati mijitu kazi ni kuiba.
Yaani I will never vote maana hata Upinzani wamejikusanya mafisadi watupu.

 

[Kafrican]

if you ask me hio ministry of health ni corrupt sana...after police ni hao
.....
hua wanapewa pesa nyingi sana, lakini ikija kwa statistics utakuta donors wanafund 30% ya malipo yote ya afya kenya, tena utakuta vitu kama tb ya bure, dawa za malaria za bure hua pesa nyingi imetoka kwa donors na world bank.... hawa watu hua wanakula hio pesa yetu alafu wanaomba donors ndo watibu wagonjwa..... mi niko background ya computer science, hio system ya IFMIS iko secure lakini ni rahisi sana kudanganya mtu kupitia social engeneering... nilikua naitwa sana wakati inaekwa kwa ma offisi za serekali, unakuta jitu liko na cheo muhimu limeandika password yake ya ifmis kwa kakitabu kako hapo juu ya meza, yani nilishinda nikieleza hao watu vile ni hatari sana lakini wana maskio ya kufa...
alafu wengine wanasahau password, unamwambia kupata pawword mpya ni self explanatory kwa hio website/browser ya ifmis, you just vlick forgort password button na you follow the steps, jitu linakasirika eti anataka nije nimfanyie.... yani mara nyengine ilikua unaumwa na kichwa kwa sababu ya vitu vidogo sana..... mtu anapewa corporate email ya serikali alafu anakwambia arh mi situmii hizo vitu... WTF! this is the 21st century..... nkt! wacha niwachie hapo, nikianza kufikiria hio story ntapandwa na presha bure

 

[bongo-live]

The outright pilfrage of public funds in kenya is mind blowing. Every week there is a scandal being un earthed, you can even bet on it! And the arrogance that follows the theft is equally shocking.Seems the goverment is showing its citizens the only way you can do a rags to riches story is through theft. The IFMIS system is among the safest in the world and if its being manipulated in kenya, the citizens are surely fcked.Hope something changes soon.

 

[Ol Ng'oswa]

The outright pilfrage of public funds in kenya is mind blowing. Every week there is a scandal being un earthed, you can even bet on it! And the arrogance that follows the theft is equally shocking.Seems the goverment is showing its citizens the only way you can do a rags to riches story is through theft. The IFMIS system is among the safest in the world and if its being manipulated in kenya, the citizens are surely fcked.Hope something changes soon.

LO..kumbe hata hii kitu ipo kenya?
Pamoja na kelele zote mingi

 

[simplemind]

Ksh billion tano! Huo siyo udokozi ni kukomba mboga yote.

 

[bongo-live]

Ksh billion tano! Huo siyo udokozi ni kukomba mboga yote.

hahaa dah inatisha baba, when people manipulate the procurement systems and pay themselves handsomely for work not done, thats not corruption, its looting!!. anyway the african blockbuster corruption movie is just begining, yetu macho.

 

[jikis]

This is one among the reasons kwa African Leaders kujitoa court iliyoko Netherlands. We need moral deliverance

 

[MK254]

But am loving our media, they are very bold and do conduct in-depth investigation, digging so deep and coming out with killer analysis. Unaanikwa hadi unakosa usingizi.

 

[Smatta]

Huyu asipopigwa chini Jubilee waisahau kura yangu. Am so angry with these people. Wengine tunafanya kazi kwa bidii na uzalendo wakati mijitu kazi ni kuiba.
Yaani I will never vote maana hata Upinzani wamejikusanya mafisadi watupu.

My sentiments exactly, if no one is thrown under the bus for this, Jubilee wont get my vote. I'm tired of the wanton corruption in this country, Uhuru MUST act, the buck stops with him and he can't keep shifting blames while his cabinet is on a looting spree. tumechoka.