I’m ready to go to jail, says Magoha as he dismisses report on Sh10m allowances

Hours after reports that Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha and his staff were paid more than Sh10 million in allowances for touring the country “to monitor the distribution of lockers and desks” in schools, the CS has come out to defend the payments. Prof Magoha said Monday that he prefers to personally inspect projects to ensure that they are executed properly.

"I go to commission projects because I don’t trust anybody. I must make sure that I’m not given reports that can’t be verified. It’s so much better to go to jail because you went to inspect something that is there that cannot be carried away, instead of being praised for or accused of spending money that was used on something that’s not there."

Prof Magoha was speaking Monday when he commissioned a CBC classroom at Chania Girls High School in Thika West, Kiambu County. He recently launched Phase II of the project that is intended to put 3,503 classrooms to add on to the 6,497 that were constructed in Phase I to increase spaces ahead of the transition to junior secondary school in January next year. 

In her latest audit report, Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu had faulted top management at the Ministry of Education for spending over Sh10 million in 2020 to pay daily subsistence allowances to staff from Nairobi headquarters to monitor the distribution of desks in schools. She argued that the exercise could have been done by staff at county offices at “minimal or no cost” at all. 

“The state department has established offices in all counties and the staff in these offices could have been used with minimal or no costs. This expenditure was therefore against Section 79(2b) of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 which states that a public officer employed in a National Government state organ or public entity should ensure that resources within the officer’s area of responsibility are used in a way that is lawful and authorised and effective, efficient, economical and transparent,” the report reads in part. 

The desks and lockers project was part of a Covid-19 economic stimulus package that was meant to help in social distancing and promoting local artisans whose businesses were ravaged by the pandemic.

Meanwhile, during the Kiambu visit Monday, the CS urged contractors countrywide to expedite construction of education projects. 

He added that once schools revert to the normal academic calendar in January, teachers will be upgraded on the Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) through school-based programmes.