A recent report by Auditor general Nancy Gathungu has put the Judiciary on the spot over Sh87 million that is missing from cash bail deposits received by three courts.
According to the report, an audit of the Judiciary’s statements for the year ending June 2020 revealed that Sh87 million was missing from cash bail deposits from three courts namely; Embu, Nakuru, and Malindi.
The report found that by the end of the 2020 financial year, Sh84.6 million was lost in Nakuru, Sh1.5 million in Malindi, and Sh2.7 million was lost in Embu.
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File image of Auditor general Nancy Gathungu. [Photo: Courtesy]
It is suspected that some officers in the Judiciary may have been involved in the disappearance of the cash, and as such, the auditor General has invited the DCI to look into the issue.
Additionally, the Auditor General noted that due to the missing cash, it is possible that the Judiciary provided wrong numbers in regards to the money it has in its accounts across different commercial banks.
“The matter was referred to the Director of Criminal Investigation and the Asset Recovery Agency… 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,” the Auditor General said in her report.
This is not the first time that cash bail deposits have been reported missing at the Judiciary. In 2018, similar reports were reported and the DCI invited to investigate, but nothing much came out of the investigation.
