WAMBOKA WANAMI: Headteachers cited in public funds misuse will face MPs

This is just as we have done with accounting officers who are expected to answer to queries raised by the auditor general to the satisfaction of the National Assembly.

We will go through the reports covering secondary schools and engage the concerned accounting officers and persons of interest until the queries are resolved.

From the reviews we have conducted with agencies under the purview of the Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education, there is a lot of impropriety in the use and management of public funds.

People are not following the law, prefer to operate out of the systems, and a lot of them were very casual until now that they are being audited. The most serious cases are with those who have never been audited before, like the headteachers.

Now that they are caught pants down, a lot of them are making huge mistakes. We are tightening the rope, though, and we hope they will improve in the next stages of audits.

There are a lot of irregularities. Like in some universities where we had instances of unprocedural land allocation. Before an agreement is even made with the school on the modalities, tractors are already tilling the land. These are some of the issues we are dealing with.

Some of these queries also boil down to the impunity with which accounting officers are managing public funds.

As Parliament, we will work within the frameworks provided in the law to deal with these rampant cases.

We have recommended punishments for some of those who have turned out as culpable. We will not hesitate to issue writs for people to be declared unfit to hold office, and for others to face administrative action for the irregularities we have spotted in our reviews.

Chairman PIC on Governance and Education and Bumula MP spoke to Star