Concerns About Hustler Fund Management Raised
Concerns About Hustler Fund Management Raised
Concerns About Hustler Fund Management Raised
In response to the conclusions of Auditor General Dr. Nancy Gathungu about the Financial Inclusion Fund (Hustler Fund), the government stated that mistakes in data extraction, understaffing in the secretariat at the time the fund was established, and mistakes in note numbering were the causes of the problems.
In a disclaimer opinion, Dr. Gathungu pointed up irregularities in the fund’s management.
She emphasized that the inability of Hustler Fund Management to submit financial accounts for audit examination hindered the process of confirming the origin and legitimacy of the balances.
This omission underscored significant shortcomings in the fund’s transparency and accountability measures.
In her detailed report, the Auditor General pointed to doubts surrounding the recovery process from exchange transactions.
\Her analysis revealed that 17,855,858 beneficiaries applied for loans, amounting to a total disbursement of Ksh 32,015,962,276.
However, a substantial balance of Ksh 10,950,075,614 remained unpaid as of June 2023, including interest receivable and loans outstanding.
Dr. Gathungu also conducted a review of balances across multiple bank accounts and mobile network operators linked to the fund.
Her findings included the inability to verify Ksh 259,026,553 held by service providers because the fund’s management had not supplied sufficient documentation.
The disclosure of bank account signatories and their specimen signatures, which were crucial for the audit review procedure, also contained errors that the Auditor General discovered.
The difficulties in verifying the Hustler Fund’s financial operations were exacerbated by these errors.
Subsequent examination indicated that the fund disbursed loans in excess of its predetermined limitations. Dr. Gathungu found 238,707 instances in which loans totaling Ksh 420,312,323 were given out, above the Ksh 219,615,242 original cap.
Among these recipients were 5,070 individuals who were ineligible for loans under the fund’s guidelines.
Furthermore, Dr. Gathungu flagged 129,315 closed accounts holding Ksh 81,622,289, where loan repayments could not be traced, indicating inadequate tracking and accountability measures.
Additionally, the Auditor General identified 867 instances of duplicate loan identity numbers, which processed 1,978 loans amounting to Ksh 477,928.
This discovery brought to light structural flaws in the supervision and setup of the fund’s loan management system.
The Ministry of Cooperatives and MSMEs responded to these findings by acknowledging a variety of difficulties encountered during the fund’s establishment, including a lack of staff, misnumbered notes, problems with data extraction, missing data dumps, and general difficulties with extraction.
The Hustler Fund encountered operational challenges, which were partly caused by these issues, according to the Auditor General’s report.
Dr. Gathungu’s findings have raised questions about the efficacy and integrity of one of President William Ruto’s most important initiatives.
After being hailed as a significant endeavor, this project is currently under investigation, raising the possibility that it will turn into another controversy for the administration.
