Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) CEO Charles Ringera has been handed a blow after a court ordered him to repay the board Ksh.491,852.
This comes after High Court judge Esther Maina granted the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) authority to prosecute top public officials responsible for losses of public funds documented across government entities on February 9.
The judgement followed Ringera’s petition disputing EACC’s decision to hold him personally accountable for the loss of the aforementioned money.
According to EACC, Ringera misused his authority in 2019 by directing HELB’s Chief Financial Officer Shem Gichimu to increase the salary of Chief Operations Officer (COO) Geoffrey Monari without first obtaining approval from the HELB Board.
“In March 2019, the CEO, HELB had irregularly approved the review of the basic salary of the then Chief Operations Officer, Monari from Kshs. 218,719.13 to Kshs. 253,923.13 where he directed Gichimu to effect the same in contravention of the Public Service Commission Human Resource Policies.”
“The Chief Finance Officer considered this as an improper order and contrary to section 36 of the Leadership and Integrity Act, 2012 and appropriately reported the same to the Commission,” said EACC in a statement.
Following an investigation, EACC ruled that Ringera’s actions in awarding incremental credits to Monari amounted to an abuse of office and a breach of public trust.
Ringera was surcharged by EACC and forced to repay the money to HELB.
