Recently tabled in parliament, the report follows an audit “motivated by delays and non-payment of fees for children under BEAM”.
BEAM is one of Zimbabwe’s Enhanced Social Protection Projects funded, coordinated and implemented by the social welfare ministry, the National Aids Council (NAC) and the donor community. It is meant to assist poor orphans and vulnerable children between the ages of five and 19 with free education.
Chiri said intended beneficiaries were affected by late payment of funds to schools. “My audit revealed that delays ranged from seven to 152 days. The delays were excessive in term 1 of 2009 to 2012 with schools being paid in the middle or end of term 2,” she noted. Delays in the disbursement of the money affect school projects and, in some cases, children were sent home pending the payment of fees. In some cases, said the report, the Project Management Unit (PMU) tasked with the disbursements paid fees for all three terms at once.
“For example fees for 2012 for 5,371 secondary schools were paid on July 30, 2012,” said the report.
The BEAM calendar stipulates that first term fees must be paid by end of March, those for the second term by end of May while third term allocations must be done by end of September.
Numerous factors contributed to the delays, according to Chiri, among them late notifications of budget allocations to communities by PMU, late community selection committee appointments, delays in selecting beneficiaries and late submission of claim forms by schools.
The audit report noted that there was poor supervision of staff implementing the project, resulting in “undeserving children accessing funds” and schools failing to submit attendance registers. In some cases, the allocated funds were underutilised, with more than $2 million for 2009 and 2010 failing to reach recipients.
If the unutilised balance of $435,173 and $1,606,193 for 2009 and 2010 respectively had been paid to primary schools in rural areas that charge fees of about $15 per term, 9670 and 35,693 children would have benefited.
In 2011 and 2012 banks rejected more than $70,000 and the money was not re-deposited, prejudicing the intended beneficiaries. Chiri accused the PMU of failure to adequately educate school authorities and communities about the project. She also urged closer supervision of implementing staff.
Post published in: Education