• City Hall still has not accounted for Sh90 million, out of the Sh357 million for last year's bursary.
• County Executive for Education Lucia Mulwa on Friday issued a list of bursary beneficiaries to the legislators for verification.
Image: EZEKIEL AMINGA
The Controller of Budget has approved the withdrawal and disbursement of bursary funds amounting to Sh397.7 million after seven months delay.
The delay was occasioned by the dissatisfaction by the office of the Controller of Budget on the reports that were earlier prepared by the county executive on the use of the previous year's bursary.
The assembly's Finance, Budget and Appropriations committee chairman Robert Mbatia confirmed to the Star yesterday that the funds are already in the county's account awaiting disbursement.
County executive for Finance Charles Kerich on Thursday said both the finance and education department prepared a more comprehensive report on the previous year's disbursement.
Appearing before the Budget committee, he pointed out the new report was presented to the office of the Controller Of Budget on July 8, 2019.
“On June 10, 2019, the Controller of Budget communicated that it was satisfied with the disbursement of the previous year's bursaries as contained in the new report, which had accounted for all Sh357 million total disbursement,” he explained.
Through a Form B letter which gives one permission to withdraw money, the county government was given a green light to proceed, withdraw and disburse the FY 2018-2019 bursary amounting to Sh 397,656,594 million .
Kerich further stated that, on the same day, the county Treasury through Form C wrote to Central Bank of Kenya to requisition money to be released to the county.
Upon receiving that permission on the same day, the county Treasury sent a request to CBK through Form C to requisition money from CBK and release the money to the county.
However, some MCAs had raised concerns that the list of beneficiaries might have changed with some of them shifting from one school to another since the list was released last year in December.
"There might be a change on list of beneficiaries who might have changed school or those who might not be in need of bursary funds anymore ,” said Robert Mbatia, chairman of the Budget committee.
Image: EZEKIEL AMINGA
However, county Treasury said the verification should be done immediately because the issuance of bursary was overdue and the executive does not intend to have further delays .
County Executive for Education Lucia Mulwa on Friday issued a list of bursary beneficiaries to the legislators for verification.
“We may not stop children from shifting schools because there must be genuine reasons for that. But we ask the MCAs to sensitise and recommend that it would be better for those receiving the bursaries to stay in one school unless there is something really pressing," she said.
As a result, it was agreed that the legislators have only one week to verify and present the correct names of beneficiaries and their schools for disbursement to occur.
The committee led by its chairman Mbatia commended Finance executive Kerich.
“We have seen the efforts put into solving this issue and we appreciate. A problem which existed for almost seven months was solved in less than a week. The committee appreciates the effort put,” he said.
However, Mbatia said the county executive has not yet accounted for Sh90 million, part of the Sh357 million for bursary, and remains an audit query.
He further urged the CEC for Education to fully take charge over the bursary issue and to maintain the good progress that was witnessed last week while solving the issue.
Officers from the Controller of Budget recommended that payments should be done directly to schools through internet banking and not through cheques.
"Going forward, we insist that the administrator, which is the Education department, do their quarterly report as provided for in PFM Act Section 168 and submit to our office,” they said.
The PFM required an administrator overseeing a fund to provide financial return before the subsequent request is approved.
In addition, Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has warned against any attempts to divert funds to accounts of cronies and suspect individual companies.
“We want the process to be as transparent as possible and we are hoping that it will get to the intended people unlike what has been happening in previous years before we came in," he said.
The Bursary funds issued in the 2017/18 financial year attracted a lot of audit queries, which led to the governor himself raising a red flag on suspicious bank accounts.