This archive report was first published on 24 July 2019.
On July 24, 2019, Dr. Belio Kipsang, the Principal Secretary for Early Learning and Basic Education, urged school auditors to examine how fees paid by parents are spent in public primary and secondary schools.
The government allocates Shs.13 billion annually for Free Primary Education and Shs.60 billion for Free Day Secondary Education, while parents in public boarding secondary schools spend approximately Shs.100 billion in fees.
Dr. Kipsang noted that the cumulative sum spent by the government and parents on secondary schools, with parents paying between Shs.40,000 and Shs.53,000 in boarding schools, totals Shs.160 billion, posing significant control and risk challenges.
“School fees paid by parents is part of public resources,” Dr. Kipsang said, emphasizing that auditors should investigate whether these fees are spent according to regulations.
During the opening of a three-day workshop for over 40 school auditors at the Kenya Institute for Curriculum Development (KICD), Dr. Kipsang asked the auditors to help school heads understand the risks and detect, reduce, or eliminate accounting errors or fraud in managing finances.
He advised the auditors to examine books of accounts at the school level, enabling them to verify accounts against actual work done, rather than relying on school heads to carry the books to county offices.
Dr. Kipsang emphasized that school auditors are the greatest safeguards of learners' interests and that their work, properly executed, could provide value for the money invested by the government and parents in schools.
