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Ogamba, Mbadi explain delays on cash for schools

Ogamba, Mbadi explain delays on cash for schools
Learners head home after schools closure in the past. PHOTO/Print

The National Treasury and the Ministry of Education were yesterday engaged in a blame game over delays in disbursing funds to schools even as principals warned their cash crunch was getting worse.

While the Treasury insisted that it had released capitation money to the Education ministry’s accounts, the latter claimed the money had not hit school accounts due to “cash flow problems in the government”.

Speaking to the People Daily from Dar es Salaam, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi said they had disbursed all the monies for primary and Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) two weeks ago and cannot therefore understand why the schools were still complaining.

Full-term money
According to Mbadi, Treasury had released Sh4.6 billion for primary schools, Sh19.6 billion for JSS, and another Sh14 billion for secondary schools.

This, Mbadi said, left the government with a balance of Sh14 billion that it intended to disburse in the next few days.

“As far as we are concerned, we have released all the funds expected to cover the full first term. So you can ask the Ministry of Education to explain to you why the schools have not received money in their accounts,” Mbadi said.

On Monday, while meeting with representatives from the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA) in Nairobi, Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said the disbursement has been delayed due to cash-flow issues.

“The money is not yet in the school accounts but hope to finalise the disbursement by tomorrow. It’s a whole issue of cash flow, but we’re working on it together with our colleagues at the National Treasury,” Kipsang maintained yesterday.

The funds, that are meant for tuition and operational expenses, have not arrived almost a month since schools reopened as expected, an issue that has led to serious operational challenges for schools.

‘Operating on credit’
And even as Mbadi insisted that the Treasury had released the money, KESSHA national chairman Willy Kuria told People Daily that schools had not received it.

“As we talk today, the situation is getting out of hands because the head teachers have been operating on credit and ins some instances the suppliers have stopped credit facilities. If this continues, we may have no other option other than considering closing early, Kuria said.

Mbadi however confessed that the disbursement of the funds were delayed a little bit because the National Treasury had hefty public debt invoices to settle in January.

He disclosed that the government had first to clear a Sh 70 billion public debt that was due this month, before it could start releasing the schools capitation and monies to the counties.

“After clearing the Sh 70 billion debt that was due, we have cleared the schools capitation and funds to counties. At the moment we are busy paying salaries. I can confidently tell you that we are up to date in all our fianncial obligations . In fact the government has never done well as we have done this time,” Mbadi said.

However, Machakos Deputy Governor Francis Mwangangi blames the delay in the disbursement of the funds to lack of priorities, opulence and corruption.

‘There is too much wastage on issues that do not matter. Take for example, the President’s tour of Western last week was full of unnecessary waste and opulence. How many helicopters and vehicles did you see being used the whole week,” he questioned.

Mwangangi also questions the government’s decision to spend a whooping Sh 104 billion to pay Adani related firms to instal the digital platform for the Social Health Authority (SHA) that has failed to work.

“The government must have its priorities right, particularly on matters on education and health. We cannot continue playing around with the education of our children and the health of our people,” Mwangangi said.

People Daily has established that although the government was to release Sh48billion towards the free primary education and the free day secondary education, Head teachers and principals are feeling the pinch for the delayed disbursement of funds.

Cash crunch
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba assured the public in December that capitation funds would be disbursed before schools reopened in January.

The government has since released Sh19 billion for schools, with another Sh14billion being processed to be released by the end the week.

The Ministry of Education says the delaywas caused by a cash crunch in the government.

“The disbursement is ongoing under instalment because of the financial challenges being experienced by the government but we are ensuring that the capitation is released so that schools can continue operating,” said Ogamba.

He went on: “This week some Sh14 billion is being processed and we hope they will be disbursed before the end of the week.”

The situation has now forced secondary school principals to dig deeper into their pockets with instructions from the government on how to use the funds, which is not enough to make ends meet.

However, as January ends, public schools are yet to receive funds for the Free Day Secondary Education programme.

Education Ministry while acknowledging the financial crisis that has gripped the learning institutions, is blaming National Treasury for failing to honour its obligation to send the capitation to schools in time.

At the same time, Mbadi discounted claims by the Council of Governors that the government is yet to disburse all the counties’ funds for November, insisting that they had cleared everything.

He however says that in December they had disbursed funds to 24 counties that exhausted all their money in their County Revenue Funds (CRFs) while left out 23 others that still had funds.

“At that time, we released Sh 31 billion to the counties that had nothing in their CFS but we are monitoring the operations of the 23 others that had an accumulated Sh 23 billion,” Mbadi told People Daily.

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