The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has directed teachers to complete the wealth declaration exercise by the 31st of December 2021.
The directive was issued via Short Message Service (SMS) to the individual phone numbers of teachers across the country.
TSC has announced that they will strictly not allow any declarations done after midnight of the 31st of December 2021.
The declaration of wealth is indicated in Sections 26 and 27 of the Public Officer Ethics Act (POEA) whereby all public officers are required to declare their assets, income and liabilities (IALs) after every two years. For teachers, the last declaration was done in the year 2019.
According to a TSC Circular, any teacher who is employed by TSC and fails to submit their wealth declaration or gives false or misleading information will be held responsible and will be fined one million Kenyan shillings or will be imprisoned for a period not exceeding one year or both upon conviction.
The non-compliant teacher will also undergo disciplinary action according to the Commission’s administrative mandate.
Heads of Institutions (HOIs) will monitor the declaration progress in their respective institutions and then report non-compliance by 31st December 2021.
The Commission also expects the following teachers to also declare their wealth.
- Teachers who are on leave of whatever nature.
- Teachers who are on suspension
- Teachers who are on interdiction
- Teachers who are under the authorized absence of duty.
Teachers who have been employed for less than two years should also submit initial declarations because the system has undergone modification to ensure this is also possible.
Teachers who did not activate their emails will have a hard time since the emails will be used to access the declaration portal.
“The Declaration can only be accessed by individuals who activated their official @mwalimu.tsc.go.ke email addresses,” read part of the Circular from TSC CEO Dr Nancy Macharia.
Upon carefully filling the required information and making sure there are no errors, teachers are to also ensure they have received a confirmation email after submitting successfully.
The Commission has also revealed that incomplete submissions will not be accepted. Besides, all sections of the declaration should be filled in completely.
With TSC having moved almost all their services online, any physical or hard copies will not be accepted. As such everything will solely be done online.