How Magoha Rescued The Ministry from A Multi-Billion Shilling Scandal
It has been revealed that influential officials at the Ministry of Education have been colluding to pay for imaginary pupils in ghost schools.
According to the Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha, more than five hundred thousand people have been receiving free primary school education, despite not even existing.
Read also: Magoha Summoned By EACC For Publicly ‘Bullying’ An Officer
According to his reports released recently, the ministry of education has been losing over seven hundred and fifty million shillings annually to cartels within the ministry.
The number of learners in primary schools had been inflated from 8.47 million to 9 million learners. The CS investigated the matter and realized a shortfall of 529,997 learners, saving the ministry Ksh. 752,594,740, which was being lost yearly. Analyzing Magoha’s statements carefully, the alleged theft has been happening for a while.
Up to 2018, the government released capitation money to schools based on the records submitted by respective head teachers and approved by the county directors of education. The quality assurance officers would then authenticate the records prior to release of funds.
When the government switched to the National Education Management Information system NEMIS, all students’ data was collected online and the information captured is what the government relied on to disburse funds to schools.
At the initial stages, a section of school heads strongly opposed NEMIS, arguing that it had left several learners out.
“This management approach has been instrumental in identifying lapses within the Ministry where Public Funds have been misappropriated and measures to ensure that I effectively intervene have been deployed,” Prof. Magoha reported to the media.
Additionally, claims have it that the top ministry officials tasked to oversee the procurement of the desks through the recently launched Government stimulus programme, had plans of embezzling public money.
The figure Magoha received from the officials was inflated additional by Ksh.1700 per desk, implying that the 1.9 billion shillings allocation could deliver only 250, 000 desks. Cs Magoha however confirmed that his ministry managed to supply more than 600,000 locally assembled desks to selected schools within the country.
The Ministry set the prices at Ksh 2500 and Ksh 3800 for primary and secondary school desks respectively.
