Sh357 million city bursary money stashed in foreign account

Makongeni MCA Peter Imwatok. [James Mwangi/Standard]

Members of the County Assembly have demanded an explanation on how the county government wired Sh357 million meant for bursaries to the account of an Australian university.

The money was kept in Maryland University's bank account for a month, delaying distribution to the beneficiaries until June 4, when it was reverted to City Hall’s bank account, the county assembly was told yesterday.

Minority Whip Peter Imwatok (pictured) asked the Education committee to explain why there was a long delay in issuing the bursaries and who had deposited the money into an Australian account.

Clarify mix-up

However, the county treasury has come out to clarify the mix-up surrounding the transfer of funds.

County finance officer Ekaya Alumasi yesterday blamed an error in the account numbers for the erroneous transfer of the funds.

Through a statement, the CFO also disparaged claims that the money had been used to trade and gain interest, further stating that the account was situated in Kenya and not in Australia.

He explained that the Maryland account was an account for donor-funded projects, managed by the Nairobi County health services and the University of Maryland. 

"Given that both the accounts were opened at the same time and because when processing payments through the integrated Financial management system only the payee appears on the work bench screen, the accountants preparing the payments erroneously picked the health donor fund account instead of the donor account," stated the statement.