Accounting Documents Goes Missing Stalling Probe Into Sh70M Missing Bursary Funds In Siaya County

Missing accounting documents have stalled a bursary fund probe in Siaya County which beneficiaries of over Sh70 million could not be authenticated for the financial years 2016/17 and 2017/18.

County executives Mary Omondi (Education) and Richard Mungla (Finance) were called before the County Assembly’s public accounts committee on Monday to explain provide the committee with the list of all beneficiaries and the exact figure of money that was paid out.

The two were however unable to respond to the auditor general for verification making it very difficult to establish exactly how much the county had lost.

MCAs claim the disbursement of the bursary in the county was non-existent for two consecutive years, citing cases where there was no evidence of beneficiaries. “We have cases of schools with 200 pupils while the audit queries indicate that bursaries were given to 600 children,” said the County Assembly’s public accounts committee’s chairman, William Kenyanyi of Yala Township.

The two executives, however, blame a change of leadership in the department leading to the loss of important documents. “We are new in these departments; there were people before us and some of the information you want you might not get from us,” said Ms. Omondi.

Siaya County is on the spot after a senior Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) official revealed that the County has lost over Sh2.8 billion to corruption since 2013.