By Roy Hezron
Over Sh800 million disbursed to various universities in the 2019/2020 financial year was spend on unspecified projects.
The Auditor General’s report says the money allocated through the State Department for University Education was not linked to any specific project.
The Auditor General Nancy Gathungu revealed that Sh834,817,364 may have been misused because it was not assigned to projects at various universities.
“The disbursements were not linked to specific projects yet a review of the monitoring and evaluation report for the year ended December, 2019 indicated ongoing projects in the respective institutions,” noted Gathungu in her report.
Consequently, it was impossible to ascertain the propriety of the disbursements Sh834,817,364 for the year ended 30 June, 2020.
Affected universities are Koitalel Samoei Sh79, 982, 744m, Gatundu University 82,693,639m, Bomet Sh 275m, Tom Mboya University College Sh105, 870, 989m, Alupe Sh150,215,378m and Kaimosi Sh 141,054,614m.
Eleven out of forty-one universities had their capitations amount increased by 20 per cent above the previous year, while capitation for Koitalel Samoei was reduced by 17 per cent.
“The basis of the significant increase of capitation to the respective institutions and the reduction of capitation to Koitalel Samoei University College was not explained,” stated the report.
The report said it was no possible to confirm the validity and propriety disbursement of over Sh5 billion to universities for the year ended June 30, 2020.
Multimedia University received Sh 619,514 above the approved budget of the capital grants to universities.
“Examination of payment vouchers for the financial year 2019/2020 revealed that an amount of Sh5,580,848,844 was disbursed to universities for various projects,” says the AG.
No contract documents, valuation certificates or projects status reports were however availed by the State Department in support of the disbursements.
The audit report was released when universities are in financial crisis with a number of proposals key among them increasing student fees being fronted to rescue the ailing sector.
In February this year the National Assembly Education and Research Committee proposed that the National Treasury jointly with the Ministry of Education should increase allocation to Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) instead of increasing the fees.
Committee chair and Busia Woman Representative Florence Mutua stated that the increase to HELB should be meant to support more students in universities.
In December 2020, Vice-Chancellors from public universities wanted the undergraduate students to start paying Sh.48,000 annually up from the current fee of Sh.16, 000.
Other proposed interventions that were agreed include review of Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) formula to take care of postgraduate students, National Priorities and Special needs.
They also wanted equity in funding of both public and private universities through University Funding Board (UFB) and the provision of Sh.1.6 Billion occasioned by data discrepancies in the FY 2018/19 to affected universities.
