When State finally removed defiant
principal from Machakos Girls School
Audit report exposes an insolent and catastrophic tenure
WITHIN months since The Anchor exposed worrying corruption levels at Machakos Girls High School, the government has moved to restore order, albeit with desperate drama by embattled Principal Joyce Kikuvi.
Even with her replacement by Mrs Mulatya from Mbooni Girls, Mrs Kikuvi refused to handover the school and had to do it in the office of the Machakos DEO Mr Abdulkadir Ali, becoming the first hand- over ceremony for a school to be done in the DEO's office.
The decision to rout Mrs Kikuvi was first made public during a recent District Education Board Meeting where Mr Ali said a decision had been made to replace her.She was still floating as we went to Press and there was no indication that any school would want to have her as Principal until such a time that the mess at Machakos Girls is resolved.
Activist groups within the town are positioning themselves for action if she is posted to another school unless there is a clear justification for her actions or full prosecution is undertaken to deal with the matter which is not isolated only on Machakos Girls.
Even after a date had been set for a transition, Mrs Kikuvi refused to turn up, forcing the Eastern Provincial Director of Education to direct that the change over be done even in her absence. Once the new Principal was in office, Mrs Kikuvi realized that the last of her tricks to cling on Machakos girls had crumbled.
The Anchor reported in August of the pressure to force Mrs Kikuvi out of the school and her plea to the board to seek a `graceful exit ` during the holidays. During one of the usually chaotic biard meetings during her time, Mrs Kikuvi had pleaded that she be allowed to leave once the schools close so that the students would not have to see her pack and leave. Even then Mrs Kikuvi used all tricks in the book to cling on until she realized that the board would not work with her an extra day of the new term.
So as students returned, they found Mrs Mulatya as hew Principal. But the shadow of Mrs Kikuvi hung over the school like a dark cloud as officials knew that she was yet to hand over and clear from the school's residence of the principal.
We had reported that the School Board of Governors, under the Chairman of Retired Judge Kasanga Mulwa had assembled an unassailable arsenal of bad deeds by Mrs Kikuvi that had been packaged into a booklet that was circulated in high offices where Mrs Kikuvi used to get protection from, making her extremely vulnerable as Principal.
If the report did not have the requisite legal force, then an audit report from officers from the office of the Controller and Auditor General made Mrs Kikuvi the most suitable guest of state to face fraud, forgery and abuse of office charges.
The report details cases of falsified board minutes that remain unsigned, authorized expenditure, unaccounted for funds among other.
Lest you miss it out, herewith, The Anchor presents to you verbatim, the report, which, sources say, must reach parliament's Public Accounts Committee.
It is addressed to The Permanent Secretary for Education Prof Karega Mutahi.
™RE: AUDIT INSPECTION REPORT
Pursuant to section 105 of the constitution ofKenya
Various observations were made and discussed between the Management, the board Executive, and the Audit Team in the presence of the District Education Office and subsequently a Management letter issued to the management arising from the observations, and various recommendations given.
The Management is yet to respond to the issues raised in the Management letter, however, the following issues are being brought to your attention, as they may be considered for inclusion in The Controller and Auditor General Report.
Unauthorised Payment Vouchers
Examination of payment vouchers of the institution revealed that various payments had been made without being signed by the school Principal.
They include;
Date Amount Payee Item
24/7/09 11,800 John Chikati Fish, Bananas
24/7/09 7,000 Cateress Meat
21/7/09 12,000 Saso Musyoka Materials for Dormitory
15/7/09 26,400 Makamithi Finishers, Amlyte
10/7/09 8,000 Jackson Mutuku Salary
01/7/09 15,000 Mr. Makau Items for Art Project
04/3/09 75,000 Southern Division Activity (Drama)
155,200 Sec Sch Heads Ass
The above payments were paid without the authority of the head of the institution who is the officer authorized to incur expenditure. This could either be as a result of the authorizing officer failing in her duties or the paying officer paying without authority. Regulations require that all payments be authorized by the head of the institution who will be held responsible to ensure that goods and services paid for are duly delivered and reasonably priced.
Irregular Payments.
Further, payments were made without following the laid down Government Procedures or without seeking the Authority of the Board of Governors, more so the payments had not been budgeted for in the Schools current budget.
They Include:
Date Payee Amount Item
18/7/09 Various Teachers 38,000 Extra Contact hours for teachers
7/7/09 Various Teachers 18,800 Extra Contact hours for teachers
05/7/09 Various Teachers 22,000 Extra Contact Hours for teachers
05/7/09 Various Teachers 19,600 Extra Contact Hours for teachers
15/7/09 MDSSJA 76,900 Joint Activity Fund
13/7/09 Various Teachers 11,000 Lunch allowance @ 700 per person
15/3/09 Various Teachers 211,000 Rewards for KCSE perfomance
31/3/09 Lukenya Gateway 28,400 Refreshments for teachers
TOTAL 425,700
Payments for Extra Contacts hours for teachers were made without approval by the Board of governors. These payments had not been budgeted for in the current financial year.
Payments to reward teachers for good 2008 KCSE results and refreshments were also made without approval by the Board of Governors; where as Payment to MDSSJA did not comply with a circular by DEO earlier in the year requiring schools to pay at the rate of Ksh. 150 per student to this fund. The school had already paid the required amount as per the circular and this particular payment appeared to be an overpayment. The payment was also not properly supported since no official receipt was attached to the payment vouchers. Instead, handwritten notes were attached in support of this payment. Further, payments of lunch allowances at a flat rate of Kshs. 700 contravene Government regulations on payment of subsistence and accommodation allowances. This requires that allowances be paid based on ones Job Group and with regard to the area an officer takes lunch or seeks accommodation.
Payments for irregularly procured Goods and Services
The management irregularly procured Goods and Services without competitive bidding process from suppliers against the requirements of the public procurement regulations.
Date Payee Amount Item
09/3/09 Drick Electrotech 145,000 Photocopier
09/3/09 Mutinda Makenzie 112,000 40 Bags Maize
03/6/09 Samson Software 40,000 School Manager program
09/3/09 Makueni office & Sch. Supp. 40,000 Beds
12/3/09 Makueni office & Sch. Supp. 368,000 Exercise Books
28/1/09 Rokim Communications 106,600 Wireless Telephone
13/2/09 Loinit Enterprises 288,000 90 Lockers & Chairs 1,099,600
Payments for the photocopier, school manager program, Beds, Wireless Telephone, Lockers and Chairs were single sourced. No quotations were invited from interested suppliers.
Payments for Maize and Exercise Books were paid to non prequalified suppliers. Supply of cereals had been awarded to Mrs. Mumo while supply of stationery had been awarded to Wamkoh. No tender Committee Minutes were availed to explain why the school procured from suppliers other than the ones already awarded the tenders.
In addition to buying from a non prequalified supplier, the payment of Kshs. 368,000 paid to Makueni Office & School Supplies for Exercise Books exceeded the quantity budgeted for the year 2009 by 30 Gross. The books were also received in the school stores under unclear circumstances. The store keeper denies receiving the items and signing the supplier's delivery note.
Indeed, it is not known who received the books since no member of the staff has owned up to the signature in the delivery note. Further, the books were entered in the stationery stores ledger under unclear circumstances since the storekeeper denies entering the books in the ledger. This is despite the fact that the books were received and taken on charge in the stores ledger, this borders on forgery and falsification of records.
Further various cash payments for supply of meat were made, this was despite the fact that a supplier had been awarded for the supply of this item (Heritage Butchery). There were no tender committee deliberations to stop his services.
The school management contravened the provisions of the public procurement and disposal act 2005, and Public Procurement Regulations 2006 (Legal Notice No. 174) of 1 January 2007. As a result, over Kshs. 1,099,600.00 spent by the school as enumerated above was used without the benefits of a competitive process. We cannot therefore confirm whether the school derived value from this money.
Irregular collection of funds
The school Management irregularly collected funds from parents as school uniforms fee without properly receipting and recording of the collections in the school's official books, instead the collections were done using unofficial cash sale receipt. Further, despite the fact that the collections were meant for school uniforms the amounts were not banked but were used for payments in cash for irregularly procured goods and services which to date have not been recorded in the institutions books but have been accounted for in some schedules availed to us during the Audit. Despite the collections not being banked the uniforms were paid for from the school account by cheques amounting to Kshs 824,430.00 and a balance of Kshs 112,640.00 is outstanding among the school creditors in Appendix 1 attached.
The collections and payments are as below:
Collections from Parents for Uniforms
Cash collected 953,990.00
Direct Payments to Bank 97,650.00
Total 1,051,640.00
Payments for Uniforms out, of School account.
Date Cheque no. Amount Payee
18/2/09 00160 150,000 Tala garments
9/03/09 00183 183,670 Tala garments
13/05/09 0027 48,190 Mshono
19/5/09 0034 25,000 Muthike
18/6/09 00154 65,580 Umiisyo
20/6/09 0067 132,070 Tala garments
30/6/09 00268 108,000 Muthike
4/08/09 00270 112,000 Tala garments
Total 824,430
Total cash collected for uniforms of Kshs. 953,990.00 was spent irregularly without being banked. We were not able to vouch for these expenditures since there were no official payment vouchers to support the expenditures. Only handwritten schedules were available to us showing how the amount was spent.
This amounts to misuse of funds.
Kshs. 824,430 spent from the school funds to pay for uniforms was irregularly spent since there was no allocation in the school budget for uniforms. This also amounts to misuse of school funds.
It's a serious breach of financial regulations to collect money in the school without issuing official receipts for the same. This is clearly spelt out in the Unit 4 of the financial Management instructions for secondary schools, Colleges and Polytechnics. The school Management therefore contravened the rules by collecting Kshs 953,990 from parents without proper accounting records.
The school management failed to adhere to its budgeted vote allocation by spending school money meant for other activities to pay uniforms despite the fact that uniform money had been collected separately. Regulation 3.2.1 of the financial Management instructions for secondary schools, Colleges and Polytechnics requires that school managers strictly adhere to vote heads which should be approved by the BOG.
School Creditors
We observed that the institution was indebted to the tune of Kshs. 4,559,913.00 as at the time of our audit. This was in form of debts mainly owed to the suppliers. This amount represents over 50% increase in creditors since January 2009 when the creditors were totaling Kshs. 2,962,621.
Appendix 1
Falsifying of Board Minutes
Examination of Board Minutes revealed that various Meetings had been held since January, however out of the four full board meetings and three Executive meeting only one full Board Meeting Minutes were signed, in our sitting with the Executive Board Members and in the presence of a representative from the District Education Officer's office the Board indicate that the rest of the minutes had not been signed because they all had been deliberately falsified by the Secretary/ Principal, as such did not represent the true discussions of the meetings. We were therefore not able to rely on all the unsigned minutes.
CONCLUSION
Please study the report and let us have your comments indicating action taken if any, soon as is applicable.
Appendix 1
Creditors List as at 30 June 2009
Names Amount
Masaku chemists 102,561.00
Pasha Enterprises 542,387.00
Makamithi 50,680.00
Kib Electricals 75,325.00
J.Muthama 54,324.00
E. Kenya 374,574.00
Tala garments 112,640.00
Muthike Kavoya 108,000.00
J. Muthama stores 54,324.00
Masaku School & Supplies 718,200.00
Makamithi 50,680.00
Makueni Office & Sch. Supplies 258,070.00
KPLC 112,522.00
Somson 68,000.00
Catolic Garage 35,322.00
Waki Enren 35,000.00
Ndovu Generalconst. 320,629.00
Beta Bakers 58,110.00
Muthike Kavoya 108,000.00
Wamkoh 423,460.00
Fralex 277,000.00
Jane Sila 504,377.00
Economic Maintenance Products 6,728.00
Masii Farmers 26,500.00
Perrezz Universal Supplies 63,000.00
Rentaline 19,500.00
4,559,913.00"
principal from Machakos Girls School
Audit report exposes an insolent and catastrophic tenure
WITHIN months since The Anchor exposed worrying corruption levels at Machakos Girls High School, the government has moved to restore order, albeit with desperate drama by embattled Principal Joyce Kikuvi.
Even with her replacement by Mrs Mulatya from Mbooni Girls, Mrs Kikuvi refused to handover the school and had to do it in the office of the Machakos DEO Mr Abdulkadir Ali, becoming the first hand- over ceremony for a school to be done in the DEO's office.
The decision to rout Mrs Kikuvi was first made public during a recent District Education Board Meeting where Mr Ali said a decision had been made to replace her.She was still floating as we went to Press and there was no indication that any school would want to have her as Principal until such a time that the mess at Machakos Girls is resolved.
Activist groups within the town are positioning themselves for action if she is posted to another school unless there is a clear justification for her actions or full prosecution is undertaken to deal with the matter which is not isolated only on Machakos Girls.
Even after a date had been set for a transition, Mrs Kikuvi refused to turn up, forcing the Eastern Provincial Director of Education to direct that the change over be done even in her absence. Once the new Principal was in office, Mrs Kikuvi realized that the last of her tricks to cling on Machakos girls had crumbled.
The Anchor reported in August of the pressure to force Mrs Kikuvi out of the school and her plea to the board to seek a `graceful exit ` during the holidays. During one of the usually chaotic biard meetings during her time, Mrs Kikuvi had pleaded that she be allowed to leave once the schools close so that the students would not have to see her pack and leave. Even then Mrs Kikuvi used all tricks in the book to cling on until she realized that the board would not work with her an extra day of the new term.
So as students returned, they found Mrs Mulatya as hew Principal. But the shadow of Mrs Kikuvi hung over the school like a dark cloud as officials knew that she was yet to hand over and clear from the school's residence of the principal.
We had reported that the School Board of Governors, under the Chairman of Retired Judge Kasanga Mulwa had assembled an unassailable arsenal of bad deeds by Mrs Kikuvi that had been packaged into a booklet that was circulated in high offices where Mrs Kikuvi used to get protection from, making her extremely vulnerable as Principal.
If the report did not have the requisite legal force, then an audit report from officers from the office of the Controller and Auditor General made Mrs Kikuvi the most suitable guest of state to face fraud, forgery and abuse of office charges.
The report details cases of falsified board minutes that remain unsigned, authorized expenditure, unaccounted for funds among other.
Lest you miss it out, herewith, The Anchor presents to you verbatim, the report, which, sources say, must reach parliament's Public Accounts Committee.
It is addressed to The Permanent Secretary for Education Prof Karega Mutahi.
™RE: AUDIT INSPECTION REPORT
Pursuant to section 105 of the constitution of
Various observations were made and discussed between the Management, the board Executive, and the Audit Team in the presence of the District Education Office and subsequently a Management letter issued to the management arising from the observations, and various recommendations given.
The Management is yet to respond to the issues raised in the Management letter, however, the following issues are being brought to your attention, as they may be considered for inclusion in The Controller and Auditor General Report.
Unauthorised Payment Vouchers
Examination of payment vouchers of the institution revealed that various payments had been made without being signed by the school Principal.
They include;
Date Amount Payee Item
24/7/09 11,800 John Chikati Fish, Bananas
24/7/09 7,000 Cateress Meat
21/7/09 12,000 Saso Musyoka Materials for Dormitory
15/7/09 26,400 Makamithi Finishers, Amlyte
10/7/09 8,000 Jackson Mutuku Salary
01/7/09 15,000 Mr. Makau Items for Art Project
04/3/09 75,000 Southern Division Activity (Drama)
155,200 Sec Sch Heads Ass
The above payments were paid without the authority of the head of the institution who is the officer authorized to incur expenditure. This could either be as a result of the authorizing officer failing in her duties or the paying officer paying without authority. Regulations require that all payments be authorized by the head of the institution who will be held responsible to ensure that goods and services paid for are duly delivered and reasonably priced.
Irregular Payments.
Further, payments were made without following the laid down Government Procedures or without seeking the Authority of the Board of Governors, more so the payments had not been budgeted for in the Schools current budget.
They Include:
Date Payee Amount Item
18/7/09 Various Teachers 38,000 Extra Contact hours for teachers
7/7/09 Various Teachers 18,800 Extra Contact hours for teachers
05/7/09 Various Teachers 22,000 Extra Contact Hours for teachers
05/7/09 Various Teachers 19,600 Extra Contact Hours for teachers
15/7/09 MDSSJA 76,900 Joint Activity Fund
13/7/09 Various Teachers 11,000 Lunch allowance @ 700 per person
15/3/09 Various Teachers 211,000 Rewards for KCSE perfomance
31/3/09 Lukenya Gateway 28,400 Refreshments for teachers
TOTAL 425,700
Payments for Extra Contacts hours for teachers were made without approval by the Board of governors. These payments had not been budgeted for in the current financial year.
Payments to reward teachers for good 2008 KCSE results and refreshments were also made without approval by the Board of Governors; where as Payment to MDSSJA did not comply with a circular by DEO earlier in the year requiring schools to pay at the rate of Ksh. 150 per student to this fund. The school had already paid the required amount as per the circular and this particular payment appeared to be an overpayment. The payment was also not properly supported since no official receipt was attached to the payment vouchers. Instead, handwritten notes were attached in support of this payment. Further, payments of lunch allowances at a flat rate of Kshs. 700 contravene Government regulations on payment of subsistence and accommodation allowances. This requires that allowances be paid based on ones Job Group and with regard to the area an officer takes lunch or seeks accommodation.
Payments for irregularly procured Goods and Services
The management irregularly procured Goods and Services without competitive bidding process from suppliers against the requirements of the public procurement regulations.
Date Payee Amount Item
09/3/09 Drick Electrotech 145,000 Photocopier
09/3/09 Mutinda Makenzie 112,000 40 Bags Maize
03/6/09 Samson Software 40,000 School Manager program
09/3/09 Makueni office & Sch. Supp. 40,000 Beds
12/3/09 Makueni office & Sch. Supp. 368,000 Exercise Books
28/1/09 Rokim Communications 106,600 Wireless Telephone
13/2/09 Loinit Enterprises 288,000 90 Lockers & Chairs 1,099,600
Payments for the photocopier, school manager program, Beds, Wireless Telephone, Lockers and Chairs were single sourced. No quotations were invited from interested suppliers.
Payments for Maize and Exercise Books were paid to non prequalified suppliers. Supply of cereals had been awarded to Mrs. Mumo while supply of stationery had been awarded to Wamkoh. No tender Committee Minutes were availed to explain why the school procured from suppliers other than the ones already awarded the tenders.
In addition to buying from a non prequalified supplier, the payment of Kshs. 368,000 paid to Makueni Office & School Supplies for Exercise Books exceeded the quantity budgeted for the year 2009 by 30 Gross. The books were also received in the school stores under unclear circumstances. The store keeper denies receiving the items and signing the supplier's delivery note.
Indeed, it is not known who received the books since no member of the staff has owned up to the signature in the delivery note. Further, the books were entered in the stationery stores ledger under unclear circumstances since the storekeeper denies entering the books in the ledger. This is despite the fact that the books were received and taken on charge in the stores ledger, this borders on forgery and falsification of records.
Further various cash payments for supply of meat were made, this was despite the fact that a supplier had been awarded for the supply of this item (Heritage Butchery). There were no tender committee deliberations to stop his services.
The school management contravened the provisions of the public procurement and disposal act 2005, and Public Procurement Regulations 2006 (Legal Notice No. 174) of 1 January 2007. As a result, over Kshs. 1,099,600.00 spent by the school as enumerated above was used without the benefits of a competitive process. We cannot therefore confirm whether the school derived value from this money.
Irregular collection of funds
The school Management irregularly collected funds from parents as school uniforms fee without properly receipting and recording of the collections in the school's official books, instead the collections were done using unofficial cash sale receipt. Further, despite the fact that the collections were meant for school uniforms the amounts were not banked but were used for payments in cash for irregularly procured goods and services which to date have not been recorded in the institutions books but have been accounted for in some schedules availed to us during the Audit. Despite the collections not being banked the uniforms were paid for from the school account by cheques amounting to Kshs 824,430.00 and a balance of Kshs 112,640.00 is outstanding among the school creditors in Appendix 1 attached.
The collections and payments are as below:
Collections from Parents for Uniforms
Cash collected 953,990.00
Direct Payments to Bank 97,650.00
Total 1,051,640.00
Payments for Uniforms out, of School account.
Date Cheque no. Amount Payee
18/2/09 00160 150,000 Tala garments
9/03/09 00183 183,670 Tala garments
13/05/09 0027 48,190 Mshono
19/5/09 0034 25,000 Muthike
18/6/09 00154 65,580 Umiisyo
20/6/09 0067 132,070 Tala garments
30/6/09 00268 108,000 Muthike
4/08/09 00270 112,000 Tala garments
Total 824,430
Total cash collected for uniforms of Kshs. 953,990.00 was spent irregularly without being banked. We were not able to vouch for these expenditures since there were no official payment vouchers to support the expenditures. Only handwritten schedules were available to us showing how the amount was spent.
This amounts to misuse of funds.
Kshs. 824,430 spent from the school funds to pay for uniforms was irregularly spent since there was no allocation in the school budget for uniforms. This also amounts to misuse of school funds.
It's a serious breach of financial regulations to collect money in the school without issuing official receipts for the same. This is clearly spelt out in the Unit 4 of the financial Management instructions for secondary schools, Colleges and Polytechnics. The school Management therefore contravened the rules by collecting Kshs 953,990 from parents without proper accounting records.
The school management failed to adhere to its budgeted vote allocation by spending school money meant for other activities to pay uniforms despite the fact that uniform money had been collected separately. Regulation 3.2.1 of the financial Management instructions for secondary schools, Colleges and Polytechnics requires that school managers strictly adhere to vote heads which should be approved by the BOG.
School Creditors
We observed that the institution was indebted to the tune of Kshs. 4,559,913.00 as at the time of our audit. This was in form of debts mainly owed to the suppliers. This amount represents over 50% increase in creditors since January 2009 when the creditors were totaling Kshs. 2,962,621.
Appendix 1
Falsifying of Board Minutes
Examination of Board Minutes revealed that various Meetings had been held since January, however out of the four full board meetings and three Executive meeting only one full Board Meeting Minutes were signed, in our sitting with the Executive Board Members and in the presence of a representative from the District Education Officer's office the Board indicate that the rest of the minutes had not been signed because they all had been deliberately falsified by the Secretary/ Principal, as such did not represent the true discussions of the meetings. We were therefore not able to rely on all the unsigned minutes.
CONCLUSION
Please study the report and let us have your comments indicating action taken if any, soon as is applicable.
Appendix 1
Creditors List as at 30 June 2009
Names Amount
Masaku chemists 102,561.00
Pasha Enterprises 542,387.00
Makamithi 50,680.00
Kib Electricals 75,325.00
J.Muthama 54,324.00
Tala garments 112,640.00
Muthike Kavoya 108,000.00
J. Muthama stores 54,324.00
Masaku School & Supplies 718,200.00
Makamithi 50,680.00
Makueni Office & Sch. Supplies 258,070.00
KPLC 112,522.00
Somson 68,000.00
Catolic Garage 35,322.00
Waki Enren 35,000.00
Ndovu Generalconst. 320,629.00
Beta Bakers 58,110.00
Muthike Kavoya 108,000.00
Wamkoh 423,460.00
Fralex 277,000.00
Jane Sila 504,377.00
Economic Maintenance Products 6,728.00
Masii Farmers 26,500.00
Perrezz Universal Supplies 63,000.00
Rentaline 19,500.00
4,559,913.00"
