By LUKE AWICH and GIDEON KETER for the Star
Auditor General Edward Ouko has questioned the whereabouts of Sh15 billion for the digital literacy programme.
In his 2015/2016 audit report, Ouko said the Information Communication Technology Authority paid Sh18,377,274 in respect to the programme which was meant to supply laptops for Standard One pupils.
The Auditor General said of the amount, Sh15,151,069 was supported by nine letters of credit but payment vouchers were not availed for audit review.
“Consequently, it has not been possible to confirm the propriety of expenditure totalling Sh15,151,069,367,” Ouko said in his report.
The laptop programme for p[rimary schools is one of the Jubilee government’s flagship projects, though its implementation has faced a lot of hurdles.
More than 1 million laptops were supposed to be delivered to pupils.
The contract to supply the gadgets was given to Moi University/JP Couto and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology/Positivo BGH.
The authority could also not explain the use of Sh11,892,990 and Sh 8,356,266 meant for the National Optic Fibre Backbone (NOFBI) Network project and county connectivity projects respectively. No documents were provided to support the expenditures.
Ouko revealed that authority also spent millions of shillings for paying non-existent staff.
“Further, included in the unexplained expenses figure of Sh167,223,283 are amounts of Sh65,045,212 and Sh1,745,625 described as personal emoluments and other staff costs respectively and whose nature and supporting analysis was not availed for audit review,” Ouko said.
“Available information indicates that these payments were made at diverse dates to a commercial bank under various Sacco names which could not be linked to the Authority’s employees.”
On Monday, Ouko revealed loopholes in the management of the National Government Constituency Development Fund in a number of constituencies in the 2016-17 audit report.
The mismanagement includes abandoned projects, missing records and unexplained expenditure running into millions of shillings.
The audit report revealed that project committee bank transactions moved from an opening balance of Sh 19,887,800 as at July 2016 to a closing balance of Sh4,085,949 as at June 30, 2017 occasioning a net withdrawal of Sh15,801,850 was not supported or accounted for by the relevant expenditure returns.
Source: The Star
