Ex-director took orders from minister on NYS deals

Former National Youth Service (NYS) deputy director-general Adan Harakhe ignored his boss and reported directly to former Devolution and Planning secretary Anne Waiguru, Parliament was told on Thursday.

Mr Harakhe’s reporting line was in breach of his appointment letter dated November 27, 2014, which indicated that he was to work under the supervision of the then NYS director- general Nelson Githinji.

Mr Githinji on Thursday told the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that Mr Harakhe was his deputy only by name, but appeared to have more powers in his manner of operations.

“Although his deployment letter showed that I was to supervise him, the reality is that he was reporting directly to Waiguru,” he told the PAC, which is probing the theft of Sh791 million at the NYS.

Mr Githinji told MPs that Mr Harakhe had access to the government’s Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) even before his formal appointment as an Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) holder in February 9, 2015.

“Captions extracted from the IFMIS system show that three weeks (on December 16, 2014) after his letter of deployment, this individual had access to the system even though he was not an AIE holder,” said Mr Githinji, who refuted Mr Harakhe’s claims that the three companies that were set to benefit from the Sh965 million loot belonged to Githinji’s wife, sister- in-law and a friend.

“For the record, Susan Wanjira is not my wife and the names given by Mr Harakhe are products of his own imagination,” Mr Githinji told the PAC. Mr Harakhe had last week claimed that he was the whistle-blower in the attempted theft of Sh695,400,000 at the NYS.

READ: CID dismiss password theft claim in NYS scandal

He told MPs that the suspect payments had been approved using his IFMIS password without his knowledge and were to benefit companies owned by Mr Githinji’s wife and relatives.

“Mr Harakhe’s claims are false since I am not aware of any mechanism at the NYS that would see me reserve business slots for my family and friends,” said Mr Githinji, adding that he was never a member of the Ministerial Tendering Committee (MTC) during his tenure at the NYS.

On Wednesday, the PAC heard from Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) director Ndegwa Muhoro that the theft of Mr Harakhe’s password could only have happened at the user’s level and not through hacking of the IFMIS system.

The cybercrime detectives recovered from Mr Harakhe’s machine several payments with transaction numbers, which he had approved between May 21 to 22, 2015.

The detectives said that from Harakhe’s browser history it was evident that he had approved the payments using his own credentials and that claims of password theft were merely an afterthought.

Mr Githinji, however, insisted that he had a cordial working relationship with Mr Harakhe, which he said was necessary to help him fit into his new post.

“I almost believed when he told me that his password had been stolen but later learnt otherwise. I did not take action against him at that point because the investigations were ongoing,” he said when asked what punitive measures he had taken on learning the correct position.

Mr Githinji’s request to provide “crucial information to aid in the NYS probe” in camera was granted and heard for close to two hours.

At a separate meeting, Mr Githinji’s predecessor at the NYS, Japhther Kiplimo Rugut, told the PAC that his exit from the NYS was marred with confusion.

“Mr Githinji took over office on Sunday May 11, 2014 and was introduced to staff in my absence. I got my posting letter the next day (Monday) at 9 am while the other officer was in office,” Mr Rugut said.

It was at this point that he made a deliberate statement stating that he had not finished the handing over process at the NYS.

Mr Rugut had received his redeployment notice on Friday May 9, 2014 at 6 pm, which he viewed as normal and did not take fault.

At the time, preparations were on to host Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang’s visit to Kenya on Sunday May 10, 2014 at the NYS.

“During the rehearsal on Saturday afternoon, the incoming director-general came in asking for similar brief and a rehearsal. This indicated he was under instruction to preside over the event. I had not received my transfer letter,” he said.