Increased access to budget information key to reducing fraud

The recent revelation by the Treasury that the education ministry has been home to a multi-billion fraud has attracted high public interest. This is because corruption remains the permanent and sceptic wound on the grand Free Primary Education programme mooted some nine years ago.

It reminds me of an 11-year-old physically challenged girl in Ekero village, Mumias constituency, who is not able to attend school because of a lack of a wheelchair and other basic aids. Equally, her parents have not been informed of where they ought to seek assistance, while the neighbouring public primary school cannot take her on board for a lack of resources. This situation keeps an estimated 250,000 plus children locked up in child labour rather than going to school. It ensures that many children attending schools in informal settlements continue lacking access to desperately needed financial resources. Further, this scourge keeps over 3.9 million children out of school and ensures that those in school continue to lack teachers and other essential learning materials.

The wound has continued to force the programme to witness regressive completion rates and poor quality educational standards. These negatives are clearly going to have a big effect on the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals.

ARTICLE 19 highly welcomes the findings of the Treasury as they at last confirm all fears by different stakeholders that the Kenya Education Sector Support Programme continues to serve as a cash-cow for some public officials. It also puts to rest the minister of education’s continued public statements that no money was lost.

As advocates for enhanced transparency using access to information tools, we also welcome the promise by the head of criminal investigation department that they are studying the report and will soon take appropriate action. We note that any cases opened up after the investigations will only add to another 25 ongoing cases against 18 officers for alleged misappropriation of Sh 92 million after the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) concluded its investigation.

However, while necessary and critical, the proposals and plans for electronic money transfers, the resignations of senior officials and the investigation and eventual prosecution of further suspects in the alleged fraud will not keep dry the plunder tap at the Ministry of Education.

Some immediate and complementary interventions are necessary. First, the treasury must make the full report publicly available on its website and through any other means.

Second, the KACC and the director of public prosecutions must without fail seek to surcharge all the responsible officials to recover all lost resources at a market rate. This will make corruption more expensive than it is currently.

Third, all donors, including the Department for International Development (DfID), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the World Bank, the African Development Bank and Concern International must make public what they fund in the Ministry of Education. DfID and its Canadian counterpart must lead the pack. This is because such proactive disclosures are expected of them from their parent ministries in the UK and Canada respectively, but also it is a constitutional requirement in Kenya under Article 35. The Education Donor Coordination Group must reach out to donors like the OPEC Fund and others to ensure stakeholders have a one-stop shop where they can get information on all funded projects and the terms of the funding.

Fourth, the Ministry of Finance jointly with the KACC and the Ministry of Information and Communication must seek to have the often least talked about Freedom of Information Bill expeditiously approved by the cabinet and reintroduced in parliament. This is because the pervasive culture of secrecy and wilful destroying of critical transactional documents will continue to put needless barriers to the good efforts of public transparency and accountability.

Fifth, the Ministry of Finance must seek to develop a citizen guide to the 2011–12 recently released budget and require that each ministry develop its own. The citizen guide to the budget is a simple, plain language summary of public finances. This is critically important as access to public information is a precondition for Kenyans to understand how the government is using its delegated authority to tax, borrow and spend public resources.

It is also vital for citizens to get involved in informed public debate during the budget process and to hold each ministry and the government in its entirety appropriately to account. Such budget guides will definitely enhance direct citizen engagement and report any improprieties in advance as a critical step in keeping dry the corruption tap. Without budget transparency the recharged efforts to win the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) short race and the Vision 2030 long race will fall short.

Sixth, the Ministry of Education must, on the one hand, develop clear guidelines, creating on obligation on the part of the school heads and boards to publicly display all monies received per year and the expenses. On the other hand, the ministry must proactively make public all disbursements to schools.

Similarly, the Education Management Information System currently used by the ministry must regularly be updated to the best international standards, perhaps with the support of UNESCO. This is critical as the latest data seems not quite up-to-date, hence giving an erroneous perception on the retention and completion rates, especially at the primary and secondary levels.

Seventh, the Teachers Service Commission must seek to deregister all those teachers who directly or indirectly facilitated the fraud through the unregistered schools.

In sum, the above efforts will ensure that discussions on transparency, access to information and accountability that have been peripheral in the Ministry of Education until a scandal is revealed are back high on the agenda. Similarly, when citizens can access better information it will ensure they deal with the paucity of information on what the ministry received from the Treasury, as well as what it sends to schools and what schools invest in. This is a powerful force against the clientelist politics that have dominated the country over the years.

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* Henry Maina is the director of ARTICLE 19, eastern Africa.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.