By James Wafula in Nairobi.
There have been at least 500 ghost workers appearing on payroll earning regular salaries since 2013 at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.
According to EACC, and DCI detectives the syndicate was uncovered following a thorough audit and head count conducted independently.
Now both present and past directors, board members and subordinate accounts staff face investigations over the near two decade scam.
The NGO council of Kenya has also addressed the issue demanding “firm” action against culprits stealing public funds.
In a press statement chairman Stephen Cheboi said medical workers at all levels are supposed to exhibit “high levels of ethical standards’ that are in-keeping with their “call to serve.”
Cheboi said medics during the current fight against covid 19 are “front-line warriors” some of whom have fallen on duty. He blamed corrupt senior managers in hospitals for spoiling the name of the noble profession.
Detectives told the Workers Eye that they expected to make “arrests soon” saying despite the institution starting an oxygen plant, “high level” graft could bring it down.. The sources said while the MRTH had blazed the trail in the fight against the covid 19 global pandemic with the oxygen plant, suspect clinics had been opened over the years. The clinics were a “conduit” to siphon public funds, detectives claimed.
The sources claimed the launch of the “white elephants’ was a clever scheme by top managers to camouflage “ghost workers” with names that all appear to come from “one region”.
The detectives said a cursory look at the payroll raised serious suspicions because most of the names of “ghost workers” are from nearby villages.
Current and past CEOs who include Prof Mengich, Dr. John Kibosia, and now Aruasa are set to be grilled by detectives already camped at the hospital.
President Uhuru Kenyatta recently directed that those involved in theft of public funds would face the law however high they might be. The head of state ordered EACC and DCI to crack the whip.
Also under the EACC DCI radar are claims that a hotel bought by pensioners in Eldoret town had gone down with millions of savings.
Pensioners have accused the board and management in 2014 of throwing their hard earned cash into a “white elephant” while some board members laughed all the way to the bank. The building is said to have belonged to a hospital director and was bought at a whooping Kshs 60 million but is yet to make any returns worth writing home about. ■
