- Payments were made to clear pending bills that had been brought forward from the prior fiscal period.
- The law requires the government to provide pads to every schoolgoing girl who has reached puberty.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
The Gender department irregularly paid Sh101.2 million for sanitary pads to public schoolgirls, Auditor General Nancy Gathungu has said.
The report for FY 2019-20 said the payments were made to clear other pending bills brought forward from the prior fiscal period.
“The payments were made without proof of requisite supporting documents,” the report said.
It citing missing documents including procurement requisitions, monitoring reports, minutes of the implementation committee confirming supply and receipt, delivery status reports, signed stores ledgers confirming the receipts, Kenya Bureau of Standards compliance certificate, inspection and acceptance reports and performance bonds.
The State Department for Gender Affairs is charged with procuring and distributing sanitary towels for girls in public primary, special primary and secondary schools.
The Sanitary Towels Programme was launched in 2011 by the Education ministry,which had been procuring and distributing the sanitary towels to girls from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The Basic Education Amendment Act (2016) places the responsibility of providing free, sufficient and quality sanitary towels on the government. The aim is to reduce the number of girls missing school while they menstruate for lack of pads.
The government is also required to provide a safe, hygienic and environmentally sound way to change and dispose of the towels.
Gathungu's report also cited unsupported expenditure of Sh1,797,649 for printing, advertising and information supplies and services (Sh175,088), communication supplies and services (Sh339,501) and domestic travel and subsistence (Sh1,283,060).
State Department in breach of Presidential Procurement Directives on ICT equipment and no value was derived from unutilised budgetary allocation of Sh21,609,270Auditor General Nancy Gathungu
The Auditor General further cited Sh1,545,572 paid on October 8, 2019, for ICT equipment and networking services, in violation of ICT Circular No MICT/A/10/3 VOL.L of January 24, 2019.
“The circular directed that all ICT procurements be done through the State Department for ICT. No approvals or exemptions from the Ministry of ICT were availed for audit examination,” it said.
It said the State Department had a budget of Sh21,609,270 under the Ministry of ICT to purchase computers, printers and other IT equipment, photocopiers, and ICT networking and communications equipment for FY 2019-20.
The management did not utilise the allocation and no explanation was provided.
“Under the circumstances, the State Department was in breach of the Presidential Procurement Directives on ICT equipment and no value was derived from unutilised budgetary allocation of Sh21,609,270," the report said.
(Edited by V. Graham)