Thursday, October 3, 2024 – President William Ruto’s government has no choice but to reveal who exactly disappeared with billions from the Hustler Fund.
This is after the National
Assembly Special Funds and Accounts Committee directed the Cooperatives
Ministry to submit a comprehensive list of Hustler Fund loan defaulters.
Cooperatives Principal Secretary
Susan Mang’eni, while appearing before the committee, was ordered to submit a
list containing the defaulters’ names, amounts owed, and telephone numbers per
constituency.
In its directive, the Accounts
Committee stated that the information would help in verifying the accuracy of
the details provided by the borrowers during registration.
The lawmakers were forced to
issue the directive after the committee led by Migori Town Member of Parliament
Fatuma Zainab noted that the Fund, which has received over KSh13 billion in a
recent disbursement, had a 78 per cent default rate.
During the meeting, the
committee also censured the Ministry officials over their failure to submit
evidence related to 19 outstanding audit queries for the 2022/2023 financial
year.
In their defence, the Ministry
officials attributed their failure to submit the critical documents to
miscommunication and a previous shortage of staff within the Fund.
According to the officials, the
shortage in staff forced them to rely on guidance from the office of the
Auditor General.
The legislators further
expressed concerns over the lack of qualified personnel within the Fund,
questioning how it could manage Kshs13 billion recently disbursed to the
ministry.
During the grilling session, it
also emerged that the Fund was not insured with MPs raising concerns
on how the Ministry would recover all the money which had turned into
bad debt.
The latest development comes
barely a month after Cooperatives Cabinet Secretary Wycliffe Oparanya disclosed
the government's intention to track down Hustler Fund defaulters.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
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