The ongoing crackdown on the tax evasion scheme by some KRA officials has come at a huge cost as members of staff turn on the top management.
In particular, the scared employees are now blaming Commissioner General John Njiraini for the woes befalling them.
According to sources, operations at KRA are at snail’s pace as anxious employees feared they would be next on the chopping board.
This forced the management to hold a crisis meeting with members of staff and defended Njiraini whom many employees are accusing of orchestrating the crackdown that has so far seen 53 of their colleagues appear before court over abuse of office and tax evasion charges.
Njiraini and KRA board chairman Francis Muthaura were forced to assure departmental heads and staff that in future, such an operation would be conducted in a different manner and urged them to continue operations without interruption.
However this was not received well with the staff and are said to have dismissed the assurances, saying they no longer trusted Njiraini and demanded that he issues a memo on the same.
This forced Muthaura to issue an internal memo assuring staff while another statement was dispatched to newsrooms.
Muthaura reassured the employees that the crackdown did not target at any group of individuals or category of staff.
He also absolved Njiraini from blame over the crackdown, saying “the ongoing investigations are an initiative of the national government investigative agencies.”
“The board treats incidences of tax evasion as serious crime that demand resolute action against both taxpayers and staff members who may abet such practices. We wish to express our confidence in the Commissioner General and the management team and assure the public that the operations of KRA continue uninterrupted,” he said.
Press Release: Ongoing Investigations Into Practices by KRA staff.https://t.co/qswXyJ9Pq4 pic.twitter.com/EHWPy6Ozfd
— Kenya Revenue Authority (@KRACorporate) May 14, 2019
However, this did not cool down things.
A KRA employee was quoted saying, “nobody is talking to another because nobody knows who is who. But we know we have several detectives among us, so we are very careful.”
On Monday the court allowed police to detain the suspects to enable officers retrieve data from 178 seized phones and laptops as well as M-Pesa statements for forensic examination.
The employees on the run are part of about 100 staff being investigated for fraudulent clearance of cargo and altering of tax returns to help in tax evasion. Others are accused of issuing tax compliance certificates illegally.
The staff have since formed a WhatsApp group through which they are trying to raise money to bail out arrested colleagues.
According to reports, detectives are now hunting down 22 employees believed to have been part of the racket but have gone underground following the wave of arrests.