Nairobi Finance Chief Asha Abdi in the Hot Seat for Sh18.5 Million Irregular Payments

An inquiry has been initiated into unauthorized payments totaling Sh.18,558,500 million made to companies associated with Chief Officer Finance and Economic Planning, Asha Abdi.

The investigation was prompted by a complaint letter dated 10/11/2023 from Chief Officer Disaster Management and Coordination, Bramuel Simiyu, titled “Unauthorized Commitments and Transactions on IFMIS for the Disaster Management and Coordination sector.”

Bramuel highlighted a series of irregular and unauthorized commitments and transactions on the IFMIS platform, impacting the sector’s budget.

The payments in question were directed towards ghost suppliers, prompting Bramuel to write to Finance Chief Officer Asha Abdi, the authority responsible for authorizing payments on the IFMIS platform.

The letter revealed that Chief Officers for various sectors are the initial approvers for payment processes. Bramuel expressed concern in the opening paragraph, stating, “It has come to my attention that there have been irregular and/or unauthorized commitments and transactions on the IFMIS platform that affect the sector budget.”

The letter further disclosed that these commitments were made prior to the approval and upload of the sector procurement plan for the year 2023/2024 onto the IFMIS platform, as required by the PFM Act.

As case in point as per the letter is a commitment of Ksh,15,658,500 invoiced from the Fire Fighting and Rescue Development Expenditure( Vote Head 0018/3111299-00001001-0726035310-53100001).

This was drawn from a vote Ksh.120 million budgeted for the construction of the Gikomba and Kangemi Fire Stations.

Additional unauthorized transactions involved invoicing using the Emergency Fund for companies with no known engagement with the sector, including Ksh 2 million paid to Charleka Enterprises and Ksh 900,000 paid to Nichotech Enterprises.

Bramuel, in his letter, called for intervention to investigate the circumstances surrounding these unauthorized approvals and requested possible reversals of the transactions. Despite the request, investigations revealed that the amounts were not reversed, leading the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to pursue the matter.

As the inquiry progressed, Bramuel requested alternative rights for the first approver to be granted to Deputy Director Mr. Brian Kisali Chunguli. The EACC is actively pursuing this matter to ensure accountability and transparency in financial transactions within the sector.