By MN Reporter

Rongo Constituency Development Fund officials have been accused of embezzlement of public funds.

It has been revealed that the officials allegedly swindle thousands of shillings by drawing cheques to ghost students.

The conspiracy to defraud the government involves heads of tertiary institutions with whom the money is being shared.

The constituents have been complaining over the manner in which the officials were disbursing CDF Bursaries claiming there was no element of transparency and accountability, an allegation that was confirmed by one of the institution managers in the region who never wanted his name to be mentioned.

The Manager of the institution said that the CDF staff are “their people” therefore they just sweet-talk them and they give full amount and the surplus in the name of a reward.

The institutions fee for a month’s course is Sh13,500 including driving course tests at the Traffic Headquarters and also the cost of licenses.

He said that they also have cases where cheques of between Sh10,0 00 to Sh20,000 are drawn to their institutions and  sometimes for non-existing students on the basis of sharing the loot.

He also mentioned that they even had a case of a cheque of Sh300,000 drawn to them from a constituency in Kisii where they gave them Sh200,000 and retained Sh100,000

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The money being swindled came at a time when the needy and deserving students were denied opportunity of getting financial assistance to enable them realize their dreams.

There has been public outcry over the management of public funds that has become a case of “who one knows syndrome.”

Efforts to reach the chairman of the CDF committee Joseph Onyango Ngare were futile as phone calls and short text messages to his phone while seeking his attention went unanswered.

Misuse of CDF is getting worse after recommendation to have the kitty handled by the county government were thwarted in parliament.