An audit report tabled in Parliament has revealed millions of shillings lost in bursary funds that are intended for students attending tertiary and secondary schools cannot be accounted for in many constituencies.
Members of Parliament (MPs) have been put in the spotlight following Auditor-General Nancy Gathung’s reports on the Constituency Development Fund (CDF). The reports show that millions of shillings are allocated to students who do not exist whose names are not provided. However, the money is recorded as spent.
Majority Leader Amos Kimunya tabled a report that raised concerns over a Kshs. 120 million from seven constituencies.
According to Gatungu, constituencies do not provide a list of students or schools and cannot account for funds. For simple, this means that a lot of students miss out as the funds end up in the wrong hands.
MPs are the ones to blame because they are charged with selecting the CDF management team members. CDF offices do not provide the required details such as admission numbers and information of the institutions that the said learners attend.
Some of the selected CDF management team members come up with ways of stealing the money with those teams known to be comprised of even spouses of MPs who manage the CDF funds with their being a huge caveat of abuse of funds.
Isiolo South
Sh. 7.8 million disbursed to students in Isiolo South could not be accounted for because respective beneficiaries have no knowledge regarding the disbursement.
Besides, there have been questions regarding the payment made to two suppliers of lubricant and oil due to a lack of the required documents such as requisition forms, quotations or framework agreements.
Chepalungu
Chepalungu auditor had questions over Kshs. 46 million that had been disbursed to students because of no admission numbers of the beneficiaries or supporting schedules of the disbursement.
Tigania West
In Tigania West a total sum of Kshs. 698,200 that could be accounted for with neither learners nor institutions acknowledging receiving any funds.
Mbeere South
Lack of necessary documents was also realized in Mbeere South leading to Kshs. 23 million not being accounted for.
In these conditions where the issuance of disbursement of bursary funds cannot be accounted for, it begs the question of where we are in the fight against corruption.
Njoro
Kshs. 121,400 sum meant for 26 secondary schools could not be accounted for with 26 secondary schools with no admission numbers being provided for the same.
In addition, four wards were allocated a sum of 4.6 million meant for the installation of the internet in Njoro, Narok, Lare, Mau and Mauche but there were no installations done in Mauche and Njoro. These two wards have no internet connectivity at the moment.
Seme
Kshs. 28 Million bursary allocation was distributed without any supporting documentation i.e. minutes of the criteria used in distribution.
Gathungu also questioned Kshs. 1.9 million allocated to sport-related projects. No documentation was provided in the form of inspection, requisitions and acceptance committee reports. There were also no store records, recording and issuing out of goods and even the types of items purchased were not provided.
Kajiado West, Kigumo and Uriri
Kshs. 28 million, Kshs. 14 million and Kshs. 1.9 million were also not accounted for in Kajiado West, Kigumo and Uriri respectively. The disbursements did not contain any documentation to support the disbursements.