The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has flagged eighteen firms allegedly involved in suspected in ‘air food supply’ in at least seven prison facilities across the country worth Sh460million.
The anti-graft czar said the fraud was executed through bogus food supply tender and payments effected.
According to reports, the State Department of Correctional Services awarded tenders to eighteen companies to supply food to Langa’ata Women’s Prison, Kamiti Medium Prison, Kamiti Youth Correctional Training Centre, Borstral Institution, Nairobi Remand Prison and Nairobi West Prison.
However, the Eacc discovered that the prisons never made such requests and thus the companies were paid at the expense of taxpayers.
“Investigations established that the seven prisons aforesaid never made any request for food deliveries to the 18 companies that are subject to investigations herein,” said EACC Chief Executive Twaliu Mbarak in a gazette notice on Friday.
The investigations revealed that the eighteen companies were owned by four people, one of whom is a senior support staff member at the state department.
He claimed that a state department principal accountant received Sh800,000 from the proprietor of Josil General Supplies, one of the firms that received Sh12 million for fictitious supplies.
The same accountant, according to the EACC boss, approved a payment of Sh4.7 million to Reen East Africa, which immediately wired Sh4 million to Housing Finance Development for the accountant’s house purchase.
Mbarak said the agency filed a report to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)with recommendations to charge officials at the state department and directors of the eighteen companies with conspiracy to commit corruption among other charges.