The National Assembly Special Funds and Accounts Committee on Tuesday 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.
President William Ruto registering for the Hustler Fund on November 30, 2022, as Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and Vincent Mutua (Chipukeezy) look on.
PCS
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.
“How can a fund have Ksh13 billion to disburse but lack crucial personnel to track it?” questioned Mbooni MP Kivasu Nzioka.
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.
Oparanya, while addressing delegates during the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSEA) annual conference, on August 23, revealed that a total of 19 million out of the 21 million Kenyans who borrowed the hustler fund defaulted on the loan.
According to CS Oparanya, the Hustler Fund was public money that should be borrowed and repaid to allow other applicants to also benefit from it.
“We are coming up with a system that will now track you to know where you are, you will soon see someone knocking on your door telling you to pay back the hustler fund,” the MP stated.
Former Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya at a rally in Kakamega County on August 20, 2020.
Photo
Wycliffe Oparanya
