A group of Members of Parliament (MPs) have strongly pushed back against claims by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu accusing them of mismanaging funds under the National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) bursary program for the 2023/2024 financial year.
The legislators have pledged to summon the Auditor General to appear before them to explain her office’s findings, which they have dismissed as inaccurate and unfair.
Leading the response was Gideon Mulyungi, Chairperson of the Decentralised Funds Accounts Committee, who labelled the report’s claims as “misleading” and “untrue.”
He insisted that MPs are not directly responsible for distributing or managing the bursary funds. Instead, Mulyungi explained that their role is to monitor and provide oversight over how the money is used in their constituencies.
The report by Auditor General Gathungu alleged that some MPs had been directly involved in using bursary funds meant for needy students in their own electoral areas, suggesting potential misuse. But the MPs rejected the notion that they handle NG-CDF money themselves.
Mulyungi, who also represents Mwingi Central, emphasized that any misuse or irregularities should be blamed on the Fund Account Managers — the officials tasked with managing the funds on the ground. “We do not control or implement NG-CDF projects.
Fund Managers are the ones who execute these tasks, and they should be held responsible where things go wrong,” he said.
Other lawmakers also supported Mulyungi’s remarks. Nominated MP Dorothy Muthoni stressed that MPs only play a supervisory role.
“We evaluate how the money is spent. The Fund Account Managers, who are hired by the NG-CDF Board, are the ones who run the fund daily. If there are any accountability issues, the spotlight should be on them,” she said.
Amid the growing controversy, the Decentralised Funds Accounts Committee has confirmed it will summon Auditor General Gathungu to a meeting. They want her to answer questions about recurring inconsistencies in her office’s reports and clarify the criteria used to arrive at the conclusions about NG-CDF usage.
Gathungu’s audit report, released earlier in the year, highlighted widespread issues in how the NG-CDF funds were being handled. It raised concerns over incomplete or abandoned projects, duplicate payments, missing receipts, and a lack of supporting documentation for certain expenses.
The report pointed fingers at nearly all of the 290 constituencies, alleging failure to properly account for millions of shillings in taxpayer funds.
For example, Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi was cited for not providing accountability for Ksh44 million used for bursaries and another Ksh2 million reportedly spent on committee operations.
Lang’ata MP Felix Odiwuor, popularly known as Jalang’o, also found himself in the spotlight after the audit revealed that Ksh52 million allocated for bursaries in his constituency could not be properly verified due to missing documentation.
As tensions escalate, MPs are demanding transparency not just from the NG-CDF Board, but also from the Auditor General’s office. They maintain that while they are open to accountability, they should not be blamed for operational issues they don’t directly control.
The upcoming committee hearing is expected to shed more light on the long-standing concerns over the handling of NG-CDF funds and may set a new tone for financial oversight going forward.
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