Bursary scam: How Bungoma County govt paid over Ksh.19M for ghost students

A mega scandal running into hundreds of millions of shillings is brewing in Bungoma County, a task-force report has revealed.

The task-force formed two months ago by Governor Ken Lusaka to audit the implementation of the Education Scholarship Fund started in 2018 revealed massive irregularities with cases of ghost students, overpayments to schools and many undeserving students benefiting while the needy were left out.

The audit carried out on 46 out 522 benefiting schools lifted the lid on alleged irregular dealings. In six of the schools sampled, 524 ghost students had benefited from the Ksh.35, 000 scholarship, resulting in the possible loss of more than Ksh.19 million from the fund established by the previous administration in 2018.

Kibabii High School, for instance, had 521 students on record yet the actual number was 409; showing a 119 difference, with each allocated Ksh.35,000 as bursary; the fate of the Ksh.4.1 million disbursed remains unknown.

The scenario is replicated at Teremi High School which also received Ksh.3.9 million for 113 ghost students.

At Kapsokwony Boys, the story remains the same; 62 ghost students received Ksh.2.1 million.

“Wale ambao watapatikana kuwa wamehusika watabeba msalaba wao, na mimi sionei mtu. Hii ni report imetoka sababu jopo lilienda wakahesabu watoto wakapata shule kama Kibabii watoto 119 hawako,” said Governor Lusaka.

The report also shows that there was flawed identification of beneficiaries of the fund where undeserving cases were awarded scholarships and deserving cases denied.

The original list of beneficiaries had also been tampered with, further findings indicating that 7 students had been transferred but their former schools continued to receive funds.

It was also established that the county continued to pay fees for 18 students whose parents had paid their fees in full, and 11 others whose fees had been fully paid by other sponsors.

Governor Lusaka added: “Hii yote ikifanywa utapata kwamba pesa mingi imepotea na hizi pesa zingesaidia watoto hawajiwezi. Report inaonyesha kuna watoto wa watu wanajiweza wamelipa watu wanafanya kaunti wanaendesha magari, hiyo mambo hatutakubali.”

Additionally, during the head count of beneficiaries, a high number of students could not be traced and in some instances the schools were not even aware of their existence.

The report stated that 62, 17 and 39 students in Chebukaka Girls Secondary School, Chesamisi Boys and Kibuk Girls High School respectively were untraceable.

The Governor was alarmed by the revelation that monies were paid using cheques instead of IFMIS, making it prone to abuse.

“Tutafanya hiyo ripoti yote ili tujue pesa ya Bungoma imeenda na nani, we must recover that money ili watu wa Bungoma wapate value for money,” stated Lusaka.

An audit of pending bills detected more malpractices including payment of ghost projects, illegal variation of contracts and selective payment of pending bills among others.

“The committee identified payments made for non-existent projects, claims were not supported by valid documentary evidence, case in point there was payment of six roads supported by the same set of photographs as evidence,” said the county boss.

The taskforce also audited the human resource and found that in some departments, a number of unqualified people had been employed.

The Governor now wants the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to investigate the reports and institute action on those linked to the multi-million corruption ring.