Nairobi MCAs say Sh50m bursary funds cannot be accounted for

Saga surrounding ward bursary disbursement in Nairobi County has resurfaced with MCAs claiming that close to Sh50 million cannot be accounted for in the last two financial years.

The ward representatives have alleged that the millions could have been lost due to hitches surrounding the use of electronic fund transfer system to disburse the Sh297.5 million ward bursary fund to schools.

Highrise MCA Kennedy Oyugi, moving a motion to urge City Hall to ditch the electronic system, said millions cannot be accounted for due to reconciliation issues between vouchers given to parents and money received in the different schools’ accounts.

He said since 2019, parents have reported problems in trying to reconcile vouchers with school bursars and accountants.

“Millions cannot be accounted for since we decided to use the direct transfer of money to schools,” said Mr Oyugi.

City Hall shifted from use of cheques to disburse money to support needy but bright students in April, 2019 in a bid to guard against the funds getting into wrong hands.

Subsequently, the county government began transferring the funds directly to the accounts of the schools of the beneficiaries.

But Mr Oyugi said the voucher system has brought more problems than solutions blaming school accountants and bursars of negligence and failing to reconcile the vouchers and the school bank accounts.

He noted that the problem mostly arises because it is difficult to reconcile the vouchers to the different bank accounts used by the schools with parents now left with the burden to print statements in order to confirm the voucher payments.