Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu has revealed that the government has managed to recover Ksh4.4 million out of Ksh19 million from private universities, money that was allocated to students funded under Government Sponsored Students (GSS) programme.
These are the students who were not placed by The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS).
The CS had appeared before The Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education chaired by Jack Wamboka yesterday to answer to various outstanding issues raised by the Auditor General, including funding of private universities.
The Auditor General had recommended that private universities refund Ksh201,671,080 spent on students funded under GSS but not placed by KUCCPS.
This followed revelations that 22 of the 32 universities did not provide evidence of the capacity declarations made to KUCCPS for the years students were placed in these universities.
The committee also noted with concern that some institutions had over-placed students beyond their declared capacities, or what is supported by declaration of capacities from the relevant universities.
Machogu stated that some of the variances in the report were recorded during the previous administration.
He added that since his appointment, he had continuously been putting up measures in place to address the gaps.
The CS told the committee that the officers in charge of the programmes then are under probe now, having been put to task to facilitate the ministry with relevant documents, which he undertook to avail to the committee.
The legislators sought to know from the CS if this had been a ploy by rogue officers from the ministry working with the accounting officers of private universities to siphon government funds.
“Heads will roll. We can’t be having fraudulent officers minting public funds at the expense of very deserving youth,” Wamboka said.
The committee directed the CS to harmonize his report and that of the Auditor General in two weeks and to hold accountable any officer involved, before appearing before them.
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By Obegi Malack
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