Csec wants probe on Loans Board
The Civil Society Education Coalition (Csec) is pressing for investigations following allegations that the Higher
Education Student Loans and Grants Board has spent K17 million for the purchase of diaries and loan forms at a time many students are failing to access loans the board provides.
A voucher on a payment made to EE and A Enterprises circulating on social media which Malawi News has also seen, indicates that the board paid about K17.2 million as payment for the diaries and loan forms.
Csec Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe has said the move smacks of irresponsibility on the part of the board as deserving needy students are failing to access the loans.
“If this is indeed true, then the organisation has demonstrated that it is irresponsible. This is not fair to the students that the board is supposed to serve. There is already an outcry that many students are not benefiting from the loans and that it also takes long for the beneficiaries to get the funds.”
“There could be bigger mistakes that the board has made.
Relevant authorities must establish if this is true and establish how the decision was arrived at. The owner of the firm the payment has been made to should also be investigated,” he said.
While confirming the authenticity of the document, the Board’s Executive Director Chris Chisoni dismissed the social media allegations that he owns the company that provided the service.
“I do not have a company and I have never registered a company in the country. The transaction is quite genuine with a qualified supplier who has been printing loan application forms for us,” he said.
He added that there is nothing peculiar about the transaction. “Every year we print loan application forms to distribute to the students so that they can apply for the loans. So we printed 20,000 loan applications forms.
It is a transaction that internal procurement committee has screened properly. This money was properly budgeted for and approved by Parliament in the 2017/2018 budget,” he said.
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