Ministry orders audit on use of school fees

Education CS George Magoha with Nakuru High School Students during the National Launch for 2019 Dialogue on Education Quality. [Harun Wathari/Standard]

The Government has ordered an audit in the 28,000 public schools on spending of fees paid by parents and the annual subsidy by the State.

It emerged that parents spend about Sh100 billion annually on fees alone, in primary and secondary schools.

The Government also releases about Sh73 billion annually to cater for free day secondary school and capitation for primary schools.

Of the Sh73 billion, the Government spends Sh13 billion on free primary education funds and about Sh60 billion on free day secondary education program annually.

Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang yesterday instructed schools auditors to track and ascertain that the monies sent to schools as fees are properly utilised.

“School fees paid by parents are part of public resources. As schools auditors, you must examine whether the fees paid by parents was spent according to the regulations,” said Kipsang.

The Government increased capitation per child by some Sh9, 374 per year. This brings to Sh22, 244, the total amount the Government releases per child annually in all secondary schools.

The amount caters for full fee in day schools with boarding schools only allowed to charge between Sh40, 000 and Sh53, 000.

The PS instructed the auditors to audit books of accounts at the school level to verify the accounts against actual work done.

“This is what you should do instead of letting school heads carry the books to your respective county offices,” said Kipsang.

The orders were issued yesterday when the PS met a team of top 40 schools auditors drawn from across the country at the Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD).

They are charged with auditing the financial and other resources held by public primary and secondary schools.

Ministry of Education director-general Elyas Abdi, director of school audit Victoria Angw’eni, director of secondary education Paul Kibet and director for administration Andrew Rukaria were present.

Also present were the Acting Director, Quality Assurance and Standards, Mary Gaturu, and deputy director for primary education, Nareah Olick.

The directive comes following a recent report that indicted primary and secondary school heads were manipulating enrollment figures and flouting procurement procedures to steal free education billions.

Audit report

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) audit report also listed bribery, hiding crucial audit documents among ways used by some heads to siphon funds meant for schools.

It has also emerged that school heads lend themselves huge sums of school money, use unofficial receipt books and outwit signatories to the various accounts to inflate cheque figures.

The EACC audit report also revealed that some heads compiled documents for non-existent projects and present them as complete.