Politics and policy
By Lynet Igadwah, ligadwah@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
At least 10 heads of top high schools have been
summoned to appear in Parliament over alleged mis-appropriation of up to
Sh112 million disbursed by the Treasury to finance subsidised secondary
education.
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Some of the schools featuring on the Auditor-General’s list
of shame include Friends School-Kamusinga, Nairobi School, Kenya High,
Kenyatta High, Mary Hills Girls, Limuru Girls and Lenana High.
They are accused of, among other things, inflating
contract prices, total payment for incomplete works, over-payment of
contractors and breach of procurement and disposal regulations.
“Principals of the schools involved in mishandling
of public funds should appear before the committee and take full
responsibility,” said chairman of the Parliamentary Accounts Committee
Ababu Namwamba while commenting on the Auditor-General’s report covering
the 2011/12 accounts currently under review by the MPs.
According to the report about 15 per cent of the
nearly Sh750 million disbursed to 11 national schools for rehabilitation
of buildings and other facilities was misappropriated.
Friends School-Kamusinga could not present
documentary evidence for expenditure of Sh14.2 million of the Sh25
million meant for rehabilitation works in 2010/11.
The school’s management had offered an explanation
that the documents were destroyed by fire at the Bungoma District
Schools Audit Office but there is no evidence to support the fire
incident claims.
Nairobi School on the other hand breached Public
Procurement and Disposal Regulations by awarding a contract to the
fourth lowest bidder as opposed to the lowest bidder.
During 2010/11 financial year, the school received
Sh25 million for rehabilitation of school facilities and construction of
a toilet block.
At the Kenya High School, Sh48 million meant for
construction of three classrooms, renovation of a kitchen and expansion
of a dormitory were instead used for construction of staff living
quarters.
Limuru Girls High School overpaid a contractor by
Sh2.5 million yet physical verification and discussions held with the
project management team revealed 30 per cent of works were incomplete.
The rest of the national schools put on the spot
include Muthale Girls School (Kitui), Malindi Boys School and Chepsaita
High School (Uasin-Ngishu).
Mr Namwamba said the culpable school heads will face the law after verification of the claims.
“It is due to such pilferage where school funds are
mismanaged that parents are still burdened to pay illegal levies
because the schools are broke,” he said.
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