Auditor General Edward Ouko. He may have been a victim of deception involving his staff in the supply of auditing software. [Photo: standardmedia.co.ke]Auditor General Edward Ouko was a victim of deception in a web of his office’s staff and officials of companies involved in the supply of auditing software.
In a dossier by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko which The Standard on Sunday obtained, Deputy Auditor General Stephen Kinuthia is described as the “prime mover” of the Sh100 million scam at the Office of the Auditor General.Kinuthia reportedly bought a car for his daughter and invested millions through a prominent investment bank. He also bought parcels of land using proceeds from the Sh100 million audit vault scam money.In Tobiko’s 21-page dossier addressed to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the DPP seemingly exonerated Ouko by demolishing all the three charges against the auditor general. He said the first was unsustainable, the second concocted and the third ‘plainly illogical’.
The DPP however, doubled the charges against Kinuthia spreading the counts.
“Stephen Kinuthia was the prime mover of this transaction which culminated in the procurement of the vault. Stephen Kinuthia is the one who approached OSI Slovenia and subsequently OSI Kenya disclosing to them the need for OAG to make a proposal to supply the audit software to Kenya National Audit Office (Kenao),” the DPP’s letter quoted by the publication says.
The DPP says that on receiving the Sh100,675,680 for the vault, OSI Kenya moved the money to four different entities who then moved some of it back to Kinuthia. He has proposed a blanket charge of conspiracy to commit an economic crime involving the sum of Sh100 million on all players including Kinuthia. According to the paper, Tobiko retained most of the EACC charges, added the amounts involved and roped in all the companies mentioned in the suspect transactions (OSI, Mars, Finsoft TCS, Enkei Holdings, Nanazi and Kenya Milk Farmers Investment) and their directors for money laundering. Kinuthia now faces six charges; deceiving principal, conflict of interest, engaging in corrupt practice, collusion, corruptly giving benefit and money laundering but he and those mentioned in the report are innocent until proven guilty.