Petitioner seeks TSC boss Nancy Macharia’s removal
The High Court has received a petition from Francis Awino, a Nairobi resident, seeking the removal of Nancy Macharia as Chief Executive of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
The petition, received by Duty Judge Lawrence N. Mugambi names Ms Macharia and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission as respondents.
According to court papers, the petitioner alleged the office of the TSC boss has been marred by overwhelming illegalities, irregularities and circumvention of the law.
“The petitioner avers that there was illegal, unlawful, and irregular misuse and misappropriation of tax payers money that was done by respondent and confirmed by the Auditor General,” part of the petition reads.
Awino said in his petition that the Auditor General had implicated the TSC in a Sh3 billion salary scandal where the CEO overpaid a section of the staff despite the fact that the agency was suffering from a shortage of teachers.
The commission has also been accused by the petitioner for failing to remit over Sh2 billion in taxes deducted from staff and that some of the staff whose salary advances were not repaid continued to draw more salary advances, raising questions of possible collusion to misuse the commission’s funds.
Further, Awino said the Auditor General’s report notes that a review of the detailed analysis of the payroll for the 2020/2021 financial year revealed that 32 teachers had an outstanding balance of ‘salary overpayment’ amounting to Sh33, 780,6I4 while the repayment period for the recovery of the outstanding amounts is beyond the retirement age of the respective teachers, casting doubt on the recoverability of the balance.
“The Petitioner avers that one teacher had been overpaid by Sh4.8 million, an amount that was being recovered at Sh9, 056. This would need 44 years to recover, an almost impossible period to be in service, assuming the teacher had completed probation before such an advance was issued.”
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