By Kipkemboi Toroitich
The Auditor-General’s office has raised the red flag over the Ministry of Education’s inability to account for billions of shillings in the 2020/2021 financial year.
According to Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu, Ksh85 billion could not be accounted for as money allocated by Treasury for a number of vote heads for the ministry staff.
In her assessment, Gathungu charges that over 36 billion shillings may have been lost to shady accounting as capitations to secondary schools, and a further 57 billion meant for free day secondary education.
More has also mystically disappeared in their hundreds of millions through hazy accounting systems, including primary schools sharing bank accounts and others having accounts that do not march the standard formats laid out by the recipient banks purported.
This obviously means the money might have disappeared into phony accounts.
The audit report points to a concerted attempt to cover up the movement of these monies as there were no clear accounting processes, making it very difficult for the auditor to track receipt and expenditure of the money.
“School principals did not acknowledge receipt of the money as expected. We could not also access the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS), despite the Public Audit Act, 2015 guaranteeing unlimited access to all financial records of a public institution,” says the report in part.
This makes it virtually an arduous task for auditors to verify accounts of expenditure.
Curiously also, over 1900 secondary schools had the same TSC number but located in different counties, raising questions on the criteria of giving 800 million shillings to these schools, and if indeed the money reached all the schools and in what amounts.
The mess does not end in cash disbursements. Close to 200 million shillings was used to procure computers for 200 schools which are said to be in all 47 counties.
Due to poor book and record-keeping both at the ministry and school levels, it might be a long time before the mystery is unraveled.
Recently, Prof Magoha defended revelations that his inspection tours of government projects, including CBC classroom construction, had cost the tax-payer over Ksh10 million.
