Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji said Monday preliminary findings from 10 files showed no procurement was done before payments were made.
The suspects include 40 civil servants and 14 directors and proprietors of business entities that were named in the first phase of investigations involving Sh468 million.
The DPP will in the meantime collaborate with the Asset Recovery Agency to freeze bank accounts that received the proceeds of crime.
The DPP will also be working to establish the tax status of the suspects.
Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji said Monday preliminary findings from 10 files showed no procurement was done before payments were made.
The suspects include 40 civil servants and 14 directors and proprietors of business entities that were named in the first phase of investigations involving Sh468 million.
“Upon perusal of the files and in consideration of evidence, I found sufficient evidence on which to institute a criminal prosecution against the suspects,” Mr Haji said, noting that 20 of the suspects had been taken to custody.
The public servants, including senior and former accountants, internal auditors and procurement officers at the NYS, will be charged with conspiracy to commit an act of corruption.
Other charges include breach of trust by a public servant, abuse of office, fraudulent acquisition of public property and fraudulently making payments from public revenues for goods not supplied.
The DPP will in the meantime collaborate with the Asset Recovery Agency to freeze bank accounts that received the proceeds of crime. The DPP will also be working to establish the tax status of the suspects.
Mr Haji said phase two of the investigations will focus on additional areas including companies/entities that benefited from the fraudulent payment and banks that were complicit.
“Our plan is to do an in-depth analysis of the files and as such, we will bring experts to do a forensic study,” he said, adding that it is highly likely more suspects will be uncovered.
The DPP promised to appoint four special prosecutors to work with his office to uncover the scandal that involves pending bills dating back to 2013.
Ms Omollo said in a report submitted to the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), that upon assuming office she inherited Sh10 billion pending bills at NYS involving 5,000 companies.
While she did not indicate how much of the Sh10 billion had been paid out, Mr Haji has since put the figure at Sh8 billion.
In the year ending June 2017 and June 2018, the NYS paid Sh8.8 billion to suppliers, 1,401 in 2017 and 421 this financial year -about Sh6.2 billion and Sh2.67 billion, respectively.
Ms Omollo has disputed that ghost suppliers were paid at the expense of genuine ones and claims that some suppliers got double payments through the government funds disbursement system -Integrated Financial Management Information System (Ifmis).
