It has been a concern of this committee and even the House on how private universities have been funded with public money but they were not being audited.
That is why this committee asked for a special audit on how much so far private universities have received.
Another concern was the placement and the enrolment, whether universities were receiving cash on enrolment or just placement.
That is what we wanted to look at and the prudence, because for any public institution we audit them to see whether there is value for money.
We have walked this journey to a point where we have amended the Universities Act, where now government funds are not spent on private universities.
We are convinced as a committee that our public universities have space for our students so that they are funded enough to develop and grow and not to be cash-strapped as they have been.
The Auditor General has tabled the special audit, and as a committee in the next couple of days we will be interrogating the report and then we will invite the stakeholders.
The Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary, KUCCPS CEO and the private universities should come and respond to some of the questions that are raised in the report.
We shall not leave it at that. We will follow up to ensure there is value for money for Kenyans.
We will be keen to know the numbers of placement and the actual enrolment. How many were actually enrolled and how much the 32 universities received and how many students went to school.
We can see some universities complied with what the Auditor General was asking but others have not submitted documents.
We also want to know the capacity, so that we know whether those students can be accommodated in our public universities.
That is all we will be looking at to see whether the money was used prudently in our private universities and if not this committee will come up with appropriate recommendations.
Public Investment Committee on Governance and Education member spoke to the Star
