Principals of schools around the country are now set to appear before Members of Parliament to respond to audit queries after presentation of audit reports by The Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) led by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu.
The head of institutions will be grilled by Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education chaired by Bumula MP Jack Wamboka.
Wamboka now says the committee will summon principals of national schools before inviting those from extra-county and county schools.
The legislature had directed the Auditor General to provide the committee with the audit reports of all national secondary schools who will be part of the pilot programme.
He said that all audit reports should be countersigned and submitted by all parties for accountability to prevent unscrupulous principals from escaping responsibility.
Gathungu had indicated that they have completed auditing over 450 schools out of the 9000 in the country which are required to be audited.
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“We are ready to ensure that the audit process is completed on time and forwarded to Parliament for onward consideration,” she said.
“The Office of the Auditor-General has cultivated mutual working relations with the Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education by providing accurate, insightful and timely audit reports to the Committee, as well as recommendations whose implementation we request the Committee to follow up,” she said.
The OAG had uncovered extensive misappropriation of funds including unauthorized fee hikes and questionable expenditures, unsupported and unaccounted-for capitations and grants advanced to various schools for the construction of various development projects in their institutions.
The auditor general had also raised concerns over decision of the schools to transfer money to the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KSSHA) which is a welfare organization that draws its membership from school heads only and it is not defined in government funding.
The parliamentary committee has been meeting various principles of technical institutions in connection with financial irregularities, misappropriations of funds and irregular procurement.
By Obegi Malack
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