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News
Thursday, January 27, 2000

Government on the defensive over bursary scam

By NATION Reporter

Irregularities in giving bursaries to needy students were denied by the government yesterday.

Education Minister Kalonzo Musyoka described a Nation Insight Team report that Sh620 million was lost as a result as "baseless and non-existent."

However, the minister's statement failed to account for double or multiple grants to some students, as shown in the documents on which the investigation was based.

It also failed to explain why some cheques were issued to students in teachers' training colleges and why this was done at the request of the Permanent Secretary.

The minister said the government had given more than Sh1 billion to needy students between 1995 and 1998 "in a transparent manner."

According to the report exclusively published in Nation on Tuesday, questions were raised about Sh620 million out of that Sh1 billion.

Mr Musyoka said the government gave Sh780,000 to Bombolulu Girls in May 1998 to assist victims of the fire disaster that claimed the lives of 26 students.

"In addition the ministry undertook to relocate the surviving 145 girls to other schools and to assist them through a grant of Sh20,000 each," Mr Musyoka said.

The cheques were distributed through the provincial education office.

In our report, we disclosed that the money was lost through a network of officers at the ministry headquarters and district offices, who colluded to cash the cheques issued under fictitious names.

According to documents available to us, some students had their names appearing in more than one school. In some cases, boys had their names appearing in girls schools and vice-versa.

Education Permanent Secretary Wilfred Kimalat, however, said the list was fictitious, having resulted from a computer error.

Yesterday, the minister issued a list of the Bombolulu fire victims and the amounts they were awarded.

He disputed the fact that one girl, Nidah Ondara, was issued with 10 cheques of Sh15,000 each in different schools. On the contrary, he said the cheques which followed sequentially from 030061 to 030070 were issued to different students.

He identified the beneficiaries of the Sh15,000 cheques as: Nidah Ondara (Ulanda), Isaac Mokaya (Nyansiongo), Mary Mbuthia (Naaro), Lilian Abuya (Amabuko), Maingi John (Njiris), Loice Muthengi (Mulango), Muli Maluki (Muthale), N. Mwangangi (Moi Isinya), Syokau Wambua (Nzeveni) and Khafwa J (Malava).

The documents we have indicate that some 18 students in eight teacher training colleges -- Eregi, Bondo, Kericho, Machakos, Muranga, Kericho, Kagumo and Meru -- were issued with cheques of Sh10,000 each.

The bursaries should be given to secondary school students and not those in colleges.

Questions also remain as to why some cheques were issued to district education offices, while the usual practice is to have the funds sent directly to schools.

Moreover, the documents indicate that some students were given bursaries based on the requests of influential people or departments like Office of the President, provincial directors of education or Education Ministry headquarters, which is unprocedural.

The right procedure is that bursaries should be allocated to schools depending on the number of students and thereafter, it is the schools themselves which decide on deserving cases.

The allocations should be done after consultation between teachers, the boards of governors and parents, who are better placed to identify the needy students.

http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/27012000/News/News53.html

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