A parastatal chief who ought to have retired one year before the government raised the retirement age for public servants to 60 years in 2008 fraudulently altered his identity card to remain in employment.
The Tana and Athi River Development Authority (Tarda) acting managing director Steven Ruimuku changed his name from the one on his national identity card as captured by the National Registration Bureau to a different one that matches with his passport, No. A1593455, acquired on February 2, 2011.
Auditor General Edward Ouko made the revelations in a report on Tarda, the State agency in charge of conservation and development of the 138,000 square kilometre of the Tana and Athi River basins.
In his report dated April 24, and which was tabled in the National Assembly by Majority Leader Aden Duale on Thursday, Mr Ouko says that Mr Ruimuku “changed his date of birth from 1953 to 1958, a date he now uses on most of his official documents. Accordingly, his true age is 62 years and as such, he ought to have retired in 2008, one year before the government enhanced retirement age to 60 years.”
The Auditor General says the change in names and age “amounts to criminal action on the part of acting managing director (of) cheating on his age by five (5) years.” Mr Ouko says the acting managing director earned Sh10.8 million in basic salary during the fraudulently extended tenure in office.
“An analysis of the extra basic salary, which he ought not to have earned, totals Sh10,765,464,” the report shows, breaking down the details from 2009. In the audit analysis, the MD earned a total basic pay of Sh1.2 million in the six months from January to June 2009 when he was the deputy managing director, a position that was scrapped. The MD’s basic pay, according to the auditor general, was Sh200,000 per month.
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Between July 2009 and June 2011, the auditor says Mr Ruimuku took home Sh3.6 million or an equivalent of Sh150,000 per month for the two years that he worked. The report says the acting MD earned a total of Sh225,000 between July 2011 and February 2012 when he was on interdiction, equivalent to a half pay of Sh75,000 per month.
Between March 2012 and February 2014, a period of 24 months, the MD earned a total of Sh3.6 million or an equivalent of Sh150,000 monthly pay. The MD earned Sh634,000 for the four-month period – March 2014 to June 2014 and Sh324,000 for July 2014 to August 2014. For the seven months period (September 2014 to March 2015), Mr Ruimuku earned Sh1,192,464 or Sh170,352 monthly.
“Consequently, Sh10,765,464 basic pay besides other allowances was illegally earned and amounts to fraud by the officer,” Mr Ouko reported. Tarda’s area of jurisdiction includes most of the former Central Province, the southern districts of the former Eastern Province and parts of North Eastern, Tana River and the Coast.
In addition to the identity alteration, the Auditor General also accuses Mr Ruimuku of irregularly hiring 37 employees in his capacity as acting MD, before taking over office in April 2013.
Mr Ouko says the acting MD approved recruitment and signed appointment letters for 37 employees from the date of his appointment in April 2013 up to the time of reporting without seeking the Treasury or the board’s approval as is required of State officials who are not substantively confirmed to a position of managing director.
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