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A new report has unearthed massive irregularities in the procurement of textbooks for public schools, with head teachers playing a key role in the racket. The fraud ranges from forged signatures, delivery of phantom books, overpricing and single-sourcing of suppliers by instructional materials selection committees at the school level. Education Cabinet Secretary recently said that though the government allocated Sh10 billion for books in the last three years, most schools did not have the materials. He estimated that the pupil-to-book ratio stood at 5:1 in primary schools.

Rorya District Executive Director (DED), has underscored the need for various schools in the country to acquire some skills on the recently introduced Procurement ACT to enable them follow thoroughly the procurement procedures and avert public funds embezzlement. The call was echoed by the DED in a full council meeting whereby the session was informed that over 100m/- allocated to Buturi Secondary School had been embezzled and so far no arrest had been made.

As a result of corruption and bureaucracy, millions of new books promised and paid by donors in 2008 were never delivered. About a third of them are still waiting to be distributed to the provinces and lots of the textbooks ordered were so poorly made that they may not last a second year.