Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has disclosed how the government lost Ksh.67 billion through irregular payments made by the National Treasury.
In the Performance report, Gathungu attributed the loss to inefficiencies in the Pension Management Information System (PMIS).
As per the report, top civil servants in the Pensions department colluded to allow irregular payments through the enrolment of non-existent persons.
Questionable Payments-Auditor General
In addition, the Auditor’s the scrutiny found that department also made double payments to duplicate bank accounts as part of the loot.
In her report, the Auditor General identified 260,242 fake claimants who are believed to have occasioned the loss of Ksh.67.9 billion.
Besides, Ksh555.9 million was paid to 419 people irregularly enrolled into the pension scheme.
There is also Ksh.36.9 million paid to 273 people yet the claimants were registered after the payments were made.
According to Gathungu, Ksh.27 million has already been paid to 117 of the 273 pensioners with questionable enrollment dates.
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“About 156 of the 273 pensioners are yet to be paid and ‘though the pensions department indicated that these entries could have been in error” read the report.
Further, some 962 people were paid Ksh.1.6 billion before they retired from public service and exited their jobs, according to the report.
Another Ksh.44 billion, the OAG adds, was paid to claimants without Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) PIN certificates, while Ksh.152.8 million was paid to people who shared identification cards.
Additionally, the auditor general revealed case where a sum of Ksh.20.9 billion was paid to 29,387 pensioners with same bank accounts.
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Also, the officials also paid Ksh.492 million to 213 people who were not on the pension scheme.
The Auditor General raised alarm over serious systemic loopholes in the pension scheme.
She mentioned that majority of the irregularities are found in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Treasury, Health, the Department of Prisons, Transport, Water, Investment and Industry, Social Protection, Judiciary and the Teachers’ Service Commission.
The report that covered the period of pension payments from 2013 to 2020.
