Inside Jubilee administration's wasteful spending

A new report has exposed how the Jubilee administration splurged more than Sh32 billion on nonessentials, including travel, conferences, and hospitality, despite austerity promises.

The 2018-19 budget implementation review report by the Controller of Budget is chock-full of wastage, with Parliament, the presidency and the Interior ministry among top lavish spenders.

According to the report, government ministries, agencies, and departments blew up Sh17.2 billion on domestic and foreign trips, Sh9.8 billion on hospitality and a further Sh5.3 billion on training.

Parliament alone gobbled up Sh6.6 billion on domestic and foreign trips, making the legislature the single-largest spender on travel.

Ironically, the giant ministry of Interior, which includes government administration and coordination, gobbled up slightly more than Sh1.3 billion on trips.

The presidency, comprising President Uhuru Kenyatta's office, Deputy President William Ruto and the Cabinet office, spent Sh704. 4 million on local travel and Sh196.6 million on foreign trips.

The 349-member National Assembly led the pack on travels, expending Sh4.4 billion on both local and foreign trips. This amounted to a quarter the Sh17.2 billion national government travel costs for the period.

The remaining Sh12.6 billion was shared by other government agencies and departments. This means each lawmaker could have pocketed an average of Sh12.6 million in travel allowances alone in the last financial year.

The National Assembly has often come under heavy criticism for ignoring austerity warnings by indulging in costly trips. It spent Sh3.1 billion on domestic travels alone. This expenditure was nearly double the Sh1.9 billion the Justin Muturi-led House splurged in the 2017-18 financial year.

The hike in travel costs is an indication of the MPs' ever-surging appetite for travel allowances to complement their salaries alongside an array of other benefits.

During the period, the MPs used Sh1.6 billion on trips abroad, up from the Sh715 million they spent in the preceding financial year.

Besides the domestic and overseas travel allowances, the lawmakers earn a gross monthly salary of Sh710,000 and are entitled to Sh5,000 sitting allowance per committee session.

They also pocket travel allowances every time they move out of Parliament on official duties.

The money they earn from domestic and foreign trips does not include their monthly mileage allowances based on the actual distance to their constituencies.

The MPs are also paid a car maintenance allowance calculated at a flat rate of ShSh356,525 per month.

The report shows that the 10-member Parliamentary Service Commission spent more than Sh1.7 billion in the last financial year on trips.

This startling revelation shows why the commission is regarded as lucrative and influential. Each commissioner could have pocketed an average of Sh170 million from trips. 

The PSC spent Sh1.2 billion on local travel, representing a Sh200 million increase on the Sh1 billion spent in 2017-18.

On foreign travel, the PSC's expenditure rose from Sh596 million incurred in  2017-18 to Sh695.3 million.

With an annual national budget of Sh3.1 trillion for 2018-19, the national government spent Sh2.5 trillion. Of this sum, Sh1.1 trillion was recurrent expenditure.

The development vote consumed a paltry Sh540.9 billion, meaning a quarter of the total expenditure was on infrastructure, with a big chunk going to operational costs.

The travel vote has been seen as a gravy train for government officials to pocket fat allowances over and above their attractive salaries, thus soaring up the government's running costs.

According to a December 2014 circular issued by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission on allowances, top government officials earn a daily subsistence allowance that varies depending on the country or city they visit.

The Office of the Auditor-General has in his recent reports revealed how senior government officials are misusing imprests by failing to surrender receipts and other supportive documents to account for their travel expenses outside normal workstations.

The government, which has been on a spending spree, blew up Sh9.8 billion on hospitality to entertain state guests and Sh5.3 billion on conferences.

The Fred Matiang'i-led Interior ministry was the highest spender on hospitality at Sh3.7 billion, tripling its costs from Sh1.06 billion used the previous year.

The ministry blew up Sh1.3 billion on local travel and Sh36.5 million on foreign trips. The local travel costs increased from the Sh1 billion recorded in 2017-18, perhaps because of the increased countrywide tours by ministry officials to inspect development projects.

The hospitality costs in the Interior ministry are likely to continue rising given that the CS will continue receiving huge delegations following his elevation in August as the overseer of all government projects.

The presidency was on a spending spree on hospitality and splurged Sh2 billion just to entertain and refresh state guests. This was an increase from the Sh1.4 billion it spent in the previous financial year.

During the 2018-19 financial year, the president received high profile guests, among them a couple of foreign presidents. The world leaders who visited Kenya included French President Emmanuel Macron, former UK Prime Minister Teresa May, Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi.

The Foreign Affairs ministry spent Sh786.4 million on hospitality, the National Treasury gobbled up Sh402.2 million, while the State Department for Public Service spent Sh 145.9 million on the same vote.

The State Department for Youth used Sh2 billion on training followed by the State Department of Interior at Sh601 million. The Health ministry was the third-biggest spender on training with Sh535 million.

The government's runaway spending on nonessentials turns the spotlight on President Uhuru's commitment to addressing the ballooning public sector wage bill.

It is also an irony given the President's order for cost-cutting measures across government to tame the wage bill, which is projected to hit Sh760 billion in the current fiscal year.

Uhuru has been vouching for austerity measures to curb wastage and save funds for development. However, the national and county governments continue to splash billions on nonessentials.

Last year, counties gobbled up more than Sh14.6 billion on travel alone in the first nine months of the 2018-19 financial year.

Just last month, the National Treasury ordered “brutal” budget cuts in light of a revenue shortfall of Sh 91 billion and rising expenditure pressures.

Acting Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani said in order to contain the resultant fiscal gap, the government had directed a freeze on non-core expenditures which include foreign and domestic travel; and hospitality.

The CS also ordered a chop on other expenses among them training, communication supplies, printing and advertising, purchase of furniture, office and general supplies, use of government vehicles, and size of government delegations in meetings outside the country.

Despite the government's radical austerity plans, expenditures on nonessentials are on an upward trend while the recurrent costs continue to consume over three-quarters of the total government costs.