Education Ministry In Trouble For Misappropriation of Capitation Funds
Members of the national assembly have asked The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) George Kinoti to probe misappropriation of Sh1.6 billion meant for various programmes in the Education Ministry.
The lawmakers also want a forensic audit carried out to unravel suspected malpractices in the use of the funds.
On Tuesday, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) tabled a report in the National Assembly on misuse of funds in the education ministry.
According to the PAC, under the leadership of Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi, money for capitation, subsidies and grants to various public schools was misappropriated by the State Department for Early Learning and Basic Education.
Of the Sh1.6 billion whose alarm the MPs are raising, ksh 919.2 million was disbursed to various primary schools with similar registration numbers. Shockingly, some of the registration numbers could not be traced in the National Education Management Information System (Nemis).
Additionally, the schools were not on the list of TSC-registered schools, a situation ministry of education guidelines on funds disbursements is against.
According to the committee, there were anomalies that led to the loss of public funds and that no recoveries from the duplicated primary schools have been made.
“Within three months of tabling and adoption of this report, the DCI initiates an investigation into the primary schools grant programme with a view to unravel any malpractices,” the report adds.
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With regard to subsidies amounting to Sh105.9 million being overpayment to 331 public secondary schools arising from inflated enrolment data, the committee told the DCI to probe the subsidy programme.
The committee observes that although the process of making recoveries from the sampled schools was halted due to Covid-19, the Accounting Officer in the department failed to prepare and keep proper accounting records.
This is in contravention of Section 68 (2) (b) of the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, 2012.
“Within three months of tabling and adoption of this report, the Accounting Officer should fully recover the outstanding amounts overpaid and submit evidence of recovery to the Auditor-General for review. Also, the DCI should initiate an investigation into the secondary schools subsidy programme,” reads the report.