By Reporter
Failure to remit the Sh1,500 placement fees to the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service has led to a debt of Sh300M and negating service delivery by the institution.
And now the National Assembly Committee on Education wants the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) to disclose the categories of institutions that have defaulted on remitting the Sh1,500 placement fee invoiced to them after placement, which has resulted in an accrued debt of Sh300 million.
The matter came up during a meeting which was chaired by the Committee Chairperson, Mr Julius Melly, to scrutinise the Service’s budget implementation status for the FY 2025/2026.
While appearing before the Committee, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Agnes Wahome, highlighted failure by institutions to pay the placement fees as a reason they had not met the targeted Sh284 million in placement fee AI-A and had only raised Sh261 million.
“Placement fees are monies invoiced to institutions after we have finished with placement. But some institutions fail to honour their obligations to pay, thus we could not achieve our target. We have about Kshs 300 million that has not been paid by institutions, mainly universities,” she said.
Mrs Eve Obara, the Committee Vice-chairperson, while reacting to the presentation by KUCCPS, asked the measures they have put in place to ensure the recovery of the accrued debts from placement fees.
“Table 3 shows that placement fees underperformed (Kshs. 261.57 million actual vs. Kshs. 284.16 million target) because ‘not all institutions were able to honour their obligations’.
Which categories of institutions (public universities, private colleges, or TVETs) are defaulting on these remittances, and what legal or administrative recourse is KUCCPS taking to recover these debts?” Obara asked.
Dr Wahome said this financial year they have made an agreement and universities signed and agreed to start paying the debt in instalments.
“We charge a one-off minimal fee of Kshs 1,500 for placement and validating the list so that the university fund and HELB can process the Fund to the universities to the students,” she said.
The CEO said it was sad that in certain situations some universities do not remit.
“However, starting this Financial Year, we made an agreement and universities signed and agreed to start paying the debt in instalments,” she said.
KUCCPS also told the Committee that during the Financial Year, the absorption rate was at 89%, amounting to Kshs 710M of the approved budget of Shs 796.5M, which were internally generated.
Budget absorption
Separately, Jomo Kenyatta Foundation (JKF), also appearing before the Committee, said they had 100 per cent budget absorption rate of the funds received from the Exchequer.
The Managing Director, Mr David Mwaniki, was asked how JKF reconciled the position that they had a 100 per cent budget absorption rate while the actual Exchequer disbursement was slashed by 81%, leaving core operations fundamentally underfunded.
National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya (NACONEK) was the last institution to make their submission before the Committee.
For NACONEK, where they recorded a high overall budget utilisation rate of 96.46%, expending Kshs 5.44 billion out of the revised Kshs 5.64 billion budgets.
