Unscrupulous court officers may have syphoned up to Sh87 million cash bail deposited with the Judiciary by suspects charged with various crimes.
A reconciliation of the Judiciary bank statements as of June 2020 revealed that the money was missing from Embu, Nakuru and Malindi courts.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu, in her review of the Judiciary’s books for the stated period, said the statements revealed losses amounting to Sh87 million.
At least Sh2.7 million was lost in Embu, Sh84.6 million in Nakuru and Sh1.5 million in Malindi in similar circumstances reported last year.
Gathungu said the nature of the loss, recovery strategies and court proceedings on the matter were, however, not disclosed.
Last year, deposit records maintained by the Molo court revealed a loss of Sh34 million from the court’s accounts.
The query dating back to fiscal year 2017-18 cited theft by staff members who have since been dismissed but the matter has yet to be resolved.
“The matter was referred to the Director of Criminal Investigation and the Asset Recovery Agency,” the auditor said.
“In view of the foregoing, it has not been possible to confirm that the bank balance of Sh6.13 billion held in various commercial banks as at June 30, 2020, is fairly stated,” Gathungu said.
In what may expose the high prevalence of the cash-handling crisis at the courts, the auditor has further flagged an unexplained variance of Sh323 million.
The amount is the difference of the general deposits as stated in the financial statements and the analysis that was provided for audit.
Further, the management did not explain why the deposits payable from the stations of Sh6.5 billion differed with the cash deposits of Sh6.13 billion.
The management at the same time did not show how the resultant difference would be serviced, leaving in doubt the accuracy of the balances.
A similar incident was reported in the report for the year to June 2018 where Sh9.3 million was syphoned from the Milimani law courts registry.
The audit revealed that some officers executed the suspected theft through receipting of fees using parallel and fake receipts at the environment and land registries.
The audit revealed that the money was neither reflected in bank statements, cashbook or counter receipt book registers maintained at the court.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations had in 2018 summoned staff involved in handling receipts, on request by the Judiciary, but the trail has gone cold.
The incident is among dozens of others that put registrar Anne Amadi’s administration on the spot, amid claims of inaction to recover the stolen funds.
National Assembly Public Accounts Committee chaired by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi observed that the responsible officers have yet to be punished.
MPs also raised the red flag that the registrar had neither reported nor instituted any civil proceedings against the officers.
The committee has raised concerns that the individuals implicated in the likely cash bail scandal may escape “personal liability for the fraudulent action”.
PAC further sounded the alarm that the practice could be going on unabated in various courts across the country as revenue leakages remain.
Auditors could not also verify revenue amounting to Sh183 million for lack of daily cash analysis to support receipt of fees and fines from July 2017 to March 2018.
MPs said the failure was an offence of financial misconduct punishable by a fine and up to five years in jail.
Gathungu has also queried the delayed completion of works on 39 law courts across the country.
As a result, contractors were paid Sh773.7 million as claims on projects awarded but had yet to commence.
Some of the projects failed to kick off due to unavailability of land for construction, unpaid certificates and interest on delayed payments.
“Consequently, the value for money on the payments and the outstanding obligations could not be confirmed,” the auditor said.
Edited by Henry Makori