The Education Ministry has been deeply involved in yet another scandal after failing to account for approximately Sh2 billion.
The funds are for government subsidies to primary, secondary, and tertiary schools.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu identified the irregularities in her review of the Early Learning and Basic Education department’s accounts for the fiscal year ending June 2021.
The infractions, according to the audit, included payments to non-existent schools, inflating student numbers, and duplicating allocations, putting the PS Julius Jawan-led department on the spot.
The majority of the transactions were completed in 2020. Similar issues were identified in the audit reports for 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20.
President Uhuru Kenyatta reorganized the ministry in February 2021, naming Jawan to succeed PS Belio Kipsang.
According to the most recent audit, the ministry did not provide data on the number of students per school at the time of disbursement, despite cases of student number inflation.
At the same time, most schools did not issue acknowledgement receipts as proof of funds received in their respective bank accounts.
There were instances where funds were distributed to schools with the same bank account numbers, as well as duplicate payments.
Gathungu stated that she was unable to confirm whether schools received the Sh59 billion subsidy for free secondary education because no school raised an acknowledgement receipt.
Sh137 million was also questioned for being paid to 225 secondary schools whose bank account numbers differed significantly from those supported by the national banking system.
Auditor General Nancy Gathungu says
“There were no confirmation receipts from the benefiting schools. It was not possible to confirm whether the bank account numbers were correctly captured and concerned schools received the funds,” Gathungu said.
A disbursement of Sh834 million to 1,933 schools with the same Teachers Service Commission school identification numbers was also noted.
The names of the schools and the subcounties referred to varied. “The ministry’s management did not explain the cause of the anomaly.”
Gathungu also complained that the ministry improperly denied her access to student enrollment data in the National Education Management Information System due to management restrictions.
According to the auditor, failure to grant access to the system violates Section 9(e)(i) of the Public Audit Act, 2015, which states that the auditor general or an officer duly authorized shall have unrestricted access to all books, records, returns, reports, electronic and documents of entities.
The auditor also has unrestricted access to any property or premises used or held by state organs or public entities that are subject to audit under the law.
“It was therefore not possible to validate the data used for disbursement of subsidies to schools,” Gathungu said in the report tabled in Parliament.
The audit discovered that Sh8.3 million was disbursed to schools with the same bank account numbers, despite the fact that the schools’ names and subcounties were different, indicating a transmission error.
The auditor general states that the anomaly was not explained, and no evidence of refunds was provided to indicate the correction of the error.
Sh2.7 million was distributed to 12 primary schools that shared the same bank account numbers in the NEMIS system, implying “duplicate disbursement.”
“No explanation for this discrepancy has been made,” Gathungu said, further flagging a variance of 438 pupils in respect of special needs schools that were paid Sh684 million.
In the aforementioned case, the enrolment data used reflected variances in the number of students used as a basis for calculating the disbursement.
The Sh305 million paid to foreign missions is also being scrutinized. The transactions were not supported by any documentation. Auditors were given an unsupported statement of expenditures totaling Sh261 million.
The audit also noted disbursements of Sh394.7 million and Sh70.2 million to 32 primary teachers training colleges and four diploma teachers training colleges, respectively.
Gathungu said the colleges have not confirmed receipt of these transfers in any way. Furthermore, no accountability statements for these transfers have been provided to confirm that the funds were used for their intended purpose.
The colleges have never prepared financial statements for audit as required by the Public Audit Act, 2015.
The disbursement of Sh638 million to secondary schools in October 2020 was also questioned.
The funds were distributed to 3,808 schools for operation accounts and 3,810 schools for tuition accounts.
The basis for identifying the beneficiary schools was not supported by any documentation, either in the form of claims from benefiting schools or evidenced by any duly approved management report.
The ministry has been questioned for failing to provide a system exception report indicating that the benefiting schools had not received the earlier disbursement.
According to the audit, sample of the schools on the list had been included in schools that had received their regular disbursement on time, so any payment was duplication.
It was discovered that payments to 31 schools were made to bank accounts whose format did not conform to the national banking system’s coding system.
In the system, none of the schools generated an acknowledgement receipt. Receipts must be uploaded into the system by schools.
The audit also uncovered a Sh22.1 million payment to 82 secondary schools in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands, with each receiving Sh270,000.
The money, according to management, was intended to help needy ASAL students. However, no documentation was provided to back up the basis for identifying needy schools.
Furthermore, no policy guidelines or directives were provided to support the ministry’s commitment and payment of these funds.
