A Kisumu court on Thursday charged six employees of Siaya county government with counts of fraudulently transferring over Sh14,000,000 to a ghost tender.
The money was supposedly paid to Samco Traders Limited which was given a supply and construction tender by Siaya County Government in May 2014.
The six include; former Siaya County Secretary Kepha Marube, the Chief Officer in charge of Governance, Amos Onyango, Internal Auditor Collins Owino, Head of Procurement, Zakayo Ojuok, Director of Supply Chain Tobias Oloo and Engineer Thomas Mboya.
On the first count, they were charged with violation of office by not following proper procurement rules during the purchase, supply, and installation of assorted sports facilities.
In the other count, it was alleged that one of the accused (Zakayo Ojuok), faked minutes to match those of the County Tender Committee leading to the payment of Sh14, 986,020.
Thomas Mboya, (the engineer) was charged with the signing, and issuing of an interim certificate showing that the tendered work was complete which saw Sh5, 637,600 paid to the contracted company without visiting the site to inspect whether the work was done.
Oloo the County Director of Supply Chain Management, was also charged with using his office to benefit to improperly and irregularly execute a contract.
Oloo, Owino, and Okello were also charged with issuing an inspection, and acceptance report which was based on a fraudulent engineers' payment certificate knowing that the works officer never visited the site.
The accused were also charged with paying the contracted firm without an evaluation, and approval of the award by the Tender Committee.
Principal Magistrate Patrick Olengo directed that the accused persons be released upon payment of Sh1 million cash bail each or by providing a Sh2 million surety each.
The case will be heard on June 8.