Gadiel Maganga, the Taita Taveta County Assembly clerk, appeared before the Mombasa Anti-Corruption Court on Tuesday to face charges of mismanagement of public funds.
The clerk was summoned on allegations of enabling fraudulent payments of Ksh.3.9 million for a bonding and merry-making trip to Zanzibar taken by county authorities, including 21 MCAs, in 2022.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) investigations revealed that the MCAs were overpaid in daily sustenance allowances, and some of those paid did not go.
“Between the months of October 2022 and November 2022 at the County Assembly of Taita Taveta within the Republic of Kenya, being a public officer to wit Clerk of the County Assembly of Taita Taveta, used your office to improperly confer a benefit of Ksh. 3,943,033.98 to twenty-six (26) employees of Taita Taveta County Assembly... while attending a training in Zanzibar by authorizing payment voucher for full daily subsistence allowance whilst knowing that the said employees were not entitled to full daily subsistence allowance since their accommodation had been catered for,” reads court papers.
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The County Assembly of Taita Taveta allegedly used fraudulent travel permission letters ostensibly issued by the Principal Secretary Ministry of Devolution to travel to Zanzibar.
EACC further showed that 25 of the 30 officers who were paid imprest to travel to Zanzibar traveled and spent five nights in Zanzibar and one night locally, rather than six nights in Zanzibar, resulting in a loss of Kshs. 1,033,288.00.
The EACC also revealed that officers delegated for the training were paid the full daily allowance while in Zanzibar for five nights, even though Bonfire Adventures, through WSPUK, had paid the same officers $132 per night to stay at the Marijani beach resort and spa hotel while attending the conference resulting in a loss of public funds of Kshs. 3,965,889.00.
