Kenya Revenue Authority officials responsible for collecting tax at the port of Mombasa are under investigations after detectives learnt of a tax evasion racket said to cost over 100 billion shillings in less than six months.
The alleged rogue officials were said to be colluding with unscrupulous traders to facilitate false declarations to deny the taxman requisite taxes such as import duty. They also allow in counterfeits in exchange for kickbacks as reported by The Standard. Some of Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) and Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) officials were also into dragged in the mud for being a part of the racket.
The police said racket entailed includes allowing contraband goods into the market, false declaration of the value of imports to attract less tax, failing to inspect all containers thus allowing substandard goods into the country and sneaking in some of the containers. At least five workers of KRA and KPA have been arrested, and more culprits are set to be caught once the crackdown is over. The detectives, from Department of Criminal Investigations headquarters, landed in Mombasa last week after visiting the KRA headquarters at Times Towers and Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Embakasi, Nairobi.
The detectives learnt that up to eight ships with substandard goods that had been cleared to dock had disappeared from the Kenyan waters after their owners learnt of the ongoing probe. One of the ships had fertiliser worth Sh30 billion, lying in the ocean for weeks now after escaping from Kenya while others had electronic goods and food that had been under-declared.
“A comprehensive report on our findings will be released by next week. We will have recommendations therein on how we can seal these loopholes that are causing losses running into billions of shillings,” said George Kinoti, the boss leading the team of investigators. He added: “In the past six months alone, Kenyans may have lost about Sh100 billion in tax evasion and sale of substandard goods.”
Some investigators said the cartel involved in the mess had been threatening them. “They have been lying to the President and the country on the tax collected. This is a complicated web that must be dismantled for us to realise our dreams,” said a source.
President Uhuru Kenyatta is said to be keenly following the operation and has ordered the Kinoti team to go for anyone involved in the scheme, directly or indirectly.