Fake receipts used to steal free schooling cash

Public officials stole more than Sh100 million meant for the Free Primary Education Programme by funding fictitious workshops and issuing fake receipts.

Education minister Sam Ongeri agreed with a statement issued by the British Governments Department for International Development (DFID) that the money was lost through “open embezzlement” affecting both donor and Kenya government funding.

Now, the UK has said it will withhold Free Primary Education funds due to the theft, which it said occurred just from June this year. Earlier figures of up to Sh6 billion lost appear to have been exaggerated.

Prof Ongeri confirmed that 26 senior ministry officials were being investigated for the theft which could drastically affect the highly lauded free primary education programme.

The UK has been supporting the Kenya Education Sector Support Programme since 2005, and has committed Sh7 billion.

In a statement to media houses on Tuesday, the UK noted that its further support to the education sector would only depend on the way the Ministry of Education handled the matter.

Prosecuted

He said support for the second phase of the programme, which is due next July, will depend on whether officials implicated in the fraud are prosecuted and the financial management systems are improved.

“No UK funds have been transferred to the Ministry of Education since the fraud came to light in September 2009. DFID had plans to disburse two further payments totalling £10 million (Sh1.8 billion) but release of these funds depends on the Government’s response to the audit report,” Mr Fernie said.

On Tuesday, Prof Ongeri said eight of the 34 officers who were under investigations for the loss of about Sh100 million meant for the free primary and secondary education had been cleared.

Addressing the Press at his office in Jogoo House, Prof Ongeri said that he would be briefing the President “soon”.

President is Kibaki is reported to have been angered about the fraud affecting a project that could be one of his enduring legacies.

During the Press briefing, Prof Ongeri acknowledged that his officers fabricated the documents and held fake workshops for which they drew the funds.

“Some will clear their names while others will not,” he said, adding that he would not pay for the sins of his juniors by bowing down to pressure to resign.

Meanwhile, acting Head of Secondary Education Concillia Ondiek on Tuesday accused a senior civil servant of approving the funds in the ‘fake’ workshops.

She claimed that most officials named in the scandal had not been heard but had already been judged by the investigating committee.

And Mr Fernie said “there was conclusive evidence of the misappropriation of both government and donor funds totalling to over Sh100 million from the month of June this year.”

“Some of it has been stolen by people who organised fraudulent workshops that never happened, manufactured receipts, walked off with the money and did so reasonably confident, they thought, that they wouldn’t get caught.” He maintained that the stolen money must be returned.

The UK is Kenya’s second biggest bilateral donor, with an aid budget in 2009/10 Sh8.5 billion, and is committed to maintaining current aid levels.

However, only 30 per cent of the aid, closely audited, goes through the government because of concerns about financial accountability. British officials said aid to Kenya could be significantly higher each year if corruption was addressed.

There are about 8.2 million children under the free primary school that started in 2003 when President Kibaki took over power from former President Daniel arap Moi. Each child is provided with Sh1,020 per year, that pays for books and tuition fees in 18,600 primary schools.

Free day secondary education is in its second year, supporting about 1.2 million children in more than five thousand schools.

Each student gets Sh10,625 per year.