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A Nairobi-based activist has initiated a legal battle against Nancy Macharia, the CEO of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), over allegations of fund misappropriation within the TSC.
Francis Awino, the petitioner, has expressed concerns that if Nancy Macharia continues to hold the position of TSC CEO, taxpayers will continue to incur financial losses due to questionable financial practices.
The accusations against Nancy Macharia arise from a report by the Auditor General that covers the period up to June 2021. The report implicates the TSC in a salary scandal amounting to Ksh. 3 billion, which was allegedly facilitated by Nancy Macharia. It is claimed that she overpaid a section of TSC staff despite a shortage of teachers. Additionally, the Auditor General’s report reveals that Nancy Macharia failed to remit over Ksh. 2 billion in taxes deducted from staff.
Furthermore, the report suggests that some of the lost funds date back to historical discrepancies, with the possibility that ghost teachers were paid between 1988 and 2000 when teachers were still paid in cash rather than through banks.
According to the petition reviewed by the writer, it is alleged that Madam Nancy advanced Ksh. 10.5 million in salary advances, some of which were undocumented, while others were not being recovered at all. Additionally, an amount of Ksh. 4,264,665 owed to 145 staff has remained stagnant over the last twelve months, with the TSC failing to provide any explanation for the non-recovery of these salaries.
The petition further claims that the TSC failed to clarify how it overpaid staff by Ksh. 352 million, some of which has remained unrecovered for several years, with certain teachers being overpaid by as much as Ksh. 33 million. The petition also states that over 5000 TSC staff are non-tax compliant, with taxes amounting to Ksh. 2.2 billion never being remitted to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
Additionally, the TSC allegedly paid a total of Ksh. 1 billion to nonexistent schools from the Free Primary Education (FPE) fund, according to the Auditor General. Ministry officials purportedly channeled Ksh. 919 million to various primary schools whose registration numbers were not in the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS).
