Principals from several technical and vocational institutions were sent away by Members of Parliament (MPs) after failing to properly respond to audit questions during a parliamentary committee session.
The Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education on Thursday, July 3, led by Bumula MP Wanami Wamboka, met heads from six colleges at Parliament Buildings in Nairobi to question how public funds were used in the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 financial years.
Rachel Kimani, Principal of Maasai Mara Technical Training Institute, accompanied by a finance officer, was sent away for failing to bring the required officers to help answer the audit questions.
“Our invitation letter to you was very categorical that your predecessor was to attend this meeting. We cannot proceed without the principal who was in charge during the audit period,” Wamboka said.
During the same meeting, Kapcherop Technical Training Institute Principal, Elias Rotich, was also chased away for the same reason, with MPs raising concerns that some heads of institutions were not taking the audit process seriously.
“These principals don’t seem ready to answer our questions. We cannot undertake such meetings without the accounting officers responsible for the audit questions,” Sotik MP Francis Sigei said.
Eric Tanui, Kipkabus Technical and Vocational Training College Principal, was the third to appear before the Committee. The issues he needed to clarify included expenditure outside reporting periods, stalled construction of the Engineering Tuition block, and non-compliance with minimum requirements on Employee Ethnic Composition.
According to the meeting report, the principal told the legislators that he has served at the institution for two years now, yet has no access to files.
“It makes no sense that a principal has been in a school for two years but has no access to files of projects, nor does he understand the basic law on ethnic composition of staff,” Kilome MP, Thaddeus Nzambia said.
“If the principal does not understand what the Law says, how do we expect him to comply with its provisions?” The chairperson questioned.
The institution was also flagged for failing to deduct taxes from Board Members’ allowances; thus, the Committee directed the principal to recover the money from the beneficiaries and put in place systems to ensure that tax deductions are made before payments are made.
Moiben Technical and Vocational College principal, Viola Ng’etich, was taken to task to explain why the institution spent Ksh1.73 Million on staff training without prior training needs assessment and planning, nor guidelines on how to undertake the same.
Ng'etich was also questioned on delayed submissions of responses to audit queries, with the Office of the Auditor General facing scrutiny for its failure to furnish the institutions with adequate information to draw responses from.
Ollessos National Polytechnic principal, Wesley Yegon, also appeared before the Wamboka-led Committee, while the last to appear was Laisamis Technical Training Institute principal Charles Rotich, to respond to audit questions, including a lack of ownership documents for the institution’s two parcels of land donated by the community.
