Auditor General Pins Ministry Of Education On Study Materials Funds

Posted by: Kyeyune Andrew Jonathan in Education February 14, 2022

The Ministry of Education and sports is currently in the spotlight for some irregularities in their procurement processes.

It has been asked to explain where it obtained the funds it used to print and distribute the first batch of study materials in 2020 following the nationwide closure of schools.

As part of the Covid-19 containment measures, the government sent home about 15 million students in March 2020. This meant that the government had to provide self-study materials for those students without access to online studies.

The ministry printed and distributed the self-study materials to learners. However, the Auditor General’s report notes have no evidence on where the funding for this came from. On top of that, authorities did not ask for a supplementary budget to cover the costs.

 “The ministry spent UGX 5.3Bn on COVID-19 impacted expenditure to cater for the printing and distribution of home learning materials, content writing for home learning materials, which was not in the approved budget and there was no evidence of a supplementary request,” the report reads in part. 

Ketty Lamaro, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Education in an interview confirmed that the funds were not in their budget.

She added that they could have moved funds from another item to satisfy the urgent demand for the learning materials.

“When the COVID-19 epidemic struck, schools were closed. And we had to make sure that students could continue to learn. I wasn’t the accounting officer at the time. I’m sure the ministry could have obtained approval from the Finance ministry,” she noted.

She further defended herself sayings she is new in the office and she needs to look for the documentation.

According to the Public Finance Management Act, diverting government cash to unauthorized expenditure is a crime. There is, however, a provision in the law.

This provision allows the accounting officer to request approval to shift funds from one budget line to another.

This consent should be written down and authorized by the Ministry of Finance’s permanent secretary/secretary to the treasury before any action is taken.

The Ministry dispatched the study materials in question to communities. They later became a source of controversy given the fact that the copies supplied were fewer compared to the number of learners who needed them.

Some districts received as low as 35 copies. These were not even enough to satisfy the number of learners in just one classroom.  

The Ministry noted that they moved funds from one line of their budget to another. This was for the purpose of funding the first batch of learning materials.

However, more questions arise on the funds provided by development partners to help to print the self-study materials.

The available documents indicate that UNICEF Uganda and other development partners including the governments of Denmark, Ireland, and Norway, and UNICEF UK contributed Shs 2.82 billion to support the printing of self-study materials around the same time.

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