Nail officials looting NG-CDF bursaries
Education is a basic human and constitutional right of every Kenyan. It enables the acquisition of knowledge, professional qualifications and skills for individual advancement and socio-economic development. The government deserves kudos for providing the funds for this human resource development.
The provision of scholarships and bursaries has improved access to education, which is a social equaliser. While the National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) is an effective means for disbursing resources countrywide to spur progress, its contribution to education in the past 10 years has been phenomenal.
Through the NG-CDF, many learners countrywide, whose parents would have been unable to pay their school fees, have benefitted. However, some crooked officials are also taking advantage of their positions to steal money meant for the needy learners’ bursaries.
An audit has confirmed the not-so-well-kept secret that millions of shillings meant for needy learners could be ending up in the pockets of a few corrupt officials and some MPs. Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu has revealed rampant mismanagement of the bursaries issued through the National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).
Her report shows that bursaries are sometimes issued to non-existent learners. For some, there were no details of the names of schools, bank details, bursary amounts, full names of beneficiaries and their admission numbers or acknowledgement letters or receipts from those institutions.
Millions of shillings have been siphoned from the fund in a number of constituencies through ghost learners.
In one constituency in western Kenya, for example, Sh58 million was spent on bursaries but only Sh38 million could be accounted for. It was also revealed that 157 beneficiaries received more than one bursary.
Some constituencies cannot account for the millions they purportedly disbursed to secondary and special schools, and tertiary institutions.
The shameless theft of public funds through the mismanagement of bursaries calls for tough measures to sanction the culprits.
Jailing some of them and recovering the loot would be a vital deterrent that would enable the needy students to get the financial support they so deserve.
