The Parliamentary Special Committee on Financial Settlement on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Cooperatives to submit a comprehensive list of loan defaulters of the Hustler Fund.
Co-operative principal secretary Susan Mangeni was ordered to submit a list of defaulters by constituency, including their names, outstanding amounts and telephone numbers, when she appears before the committee.
The Accounts Commission said in its directive that this information will help verify the accuracy of the details provided by the borrower during registration.
Lawmakers decided to issue the directive after a committee led by Migori Town Councilor Fatuma Zainab noted that the fund, which received more than Ksh13 billion in recent disbursements, had a default rate of 78 percent. I was forced to.
President William Ruto registers for the Hustler Fund as Prime Minister Musalia Mudabadi and Mr Vincent Mutua (Chipkeezy) look on on November 30, 2022.
PCS
During the meeting, the committee also accused ministry officials of failing to provide evidence related to 19 outstanding audit questions for the 2022/2023 financial year.
In their defense, ministry officials blamed miscommunication and a lack of staff within the fund for failing to submit important documents.
Officials say they had no choice but to rely on guidance from the Board of Audit due to a staff shortage.
The MPs also expressed concern over the lack of qualified personnel within the fund and questioned how the Sh13 billion recently disbursed to the ministry would be managed.
“How is it possible that the Fund has to disburse Sh13 billion but lacks the critical personnel to keep track of it?” asked Mbouni MP Kivas Nzioka.
During the debate, MPs expressed concerns about how the department would recover funds that had become bad loans, and it was also revealed that the fund was not guaranteed.
This latest development comes just a month after Co-operative Minister Wycliffe Oparanya revealed the government’s intention to go after defaulters of the Hustler Fund.
Addressing delegates at the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSEA) annual conference on August 23, Oparanya said that of the 21 million Kenyans who borrowed from the Hustler Fund, a total of 19 million defaulted on their loans. revealed.
According to CS Oparanya, the Hustler Fund is a public fund and had to be borrowed and repaid so that other applicants could also benefit from it.
“We’re currently devising a system to track where you are. You’ll soon see someone knocking on your door and telling you to pay back your hustler funds,” the lawmaker said.
Former Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya attends a rally in Kakamega County on August 20, 2020.
photograph
Wycliffe Oparanya
