The Bungoma governor Ken Lusaka is calling upon the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to take action against the former government this comes after a task force revealed massive irregularities in the education scholarship fund.
According a to the task force formed two months ago by Lusaka to audit implementation of the education scholarship fund that started in 2018 revealed cases of irregularities leaving over 19 million shillings lost.
A sample of 46 out of 522 benefiting schools were audited and it revealed hefty irregularities with cases of ghost students, over payments to schools and the needy students being left out as undeserving students benefitting 6 schools were sampled and it was revealed that 524 ghost students benefited from the 35 000 scholarship funds that adds to a loss of over 19 million shillings.
Among the schools sampled were Kapsokwony boys and Moi girls Kamusinga where 2.1 million was disbursed in each school yet the task force revealed their were 62 ghost students, in cardinal Otunga girls the number of ghost students were 80 yet 3.6 million was disbursed, Bungoma high school had 88 ghost students with disbursement of 3.1 million, Kibabii high school had 119 ghost students with disbursement of 4.1 million and lastly Teremi boys had 113 ghost students with disbursement of 3.9 million.
“Those who will be found guilty will have to carry their own cross and am not revenging on any one but this is the report that has been given out,” said Ken Lusaka the findings also reveals that the original list of beneficiaries was tampered with and the needy students were left out as underserving were awarded. It was also revealed that money was paid through checks and the governor claims that this made it prone to abuse
“More money may have been lost and this funds could have helped the needy children and from the compressive report it shows that there are some children from able families who are able to pay fees are being awarded, people that have vehicles and some working in the county government,” said Ken Lusaka.
Lusaka is now calling on EACC to bring the culprits to book as in the audit of pending bills it was also revealed that ghost projects were paid for and selective payment of pending bills. In various departments it was found that some employees were unqualified.
By Emmaculate Wamalwa
