Education CS George Magoha has responded to the auditor general report that revealed how the ministry of education wasted over Kshs10 million in paying allowances to the ministry’s officials for commissioning and monitoring the distribution of lockers and desks in public schools across the country.
The auditor general Nancy Gathungu noted that the ministry would not have incurred such huge costs if the county education officials would have been given the monitoring roles instead of officials from the ministry of education headquarters traversing the whole country to oversee the implementation of the project.
Speaking while in Kiambu county where he commissioned a CBC classroom at Chania girls, Magoha explained why it was necessary for him to inspect schools in person and not engage his county assistants.
“I go to commission projects because I don’t trust anybody. I must make sure that I’m not given reports that can’t be verified. It’s so much better to go to jail because you went to inspect something that is there that cannot be carried away, instead of being praised for or accused of spending money that was used on something that’s not there,” he said.
Gathungu had also faulted the ministry for making payments to those tasked with making the desks and lockers through Mpesa.
“No explanation was provided for using a private application instead of using Ifmis being the national payment system as per the Public Financial Management Act, 2012. Under the circumstances, the management was therefore in breach of law,” Gathungu said.
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