- COB report shows various government officers incurred another Sh124 billion in unspecified expenses.
- Presidency the highest spender on hospitality, having eaten up Sh957 million during the review period.
Image: FILE
Government officers blew Sh3.2 billion in foreign trips between July and December last year, raising questions about adherence to President Kenyatta's austerity measures.
Ministries, departments and agencies spent another Sh2.6 billion to entertain officers and guests of the state.
The MDAs spent Sh544 billion to pay salaries (Sh215.4 billion), facilitate local travel (Sh5.7 billion), on advertising, training and renting offices.
Other costs were for maintenance of vehicles and other assets as well as legal fees - expenses which continue to frustrate spending cuts.
Controller of Budget Margaret Nyakang’o in her latest review of state spending warns that the ever-increasing expenses are unsustainable.
In the Budget Implementation Review Report for the first half of financial year 2019-20, the COB warns the trend would hurt development.
The report shows state officers are still merry-making with taxpayers’ cash despite Treasury CS Ukur Yatani’s orders for discipline in government spending.
“Recurrent expenditure recorded the highest growth against a backdrop of government efforts to cut on recurrent budget in favour of development budget,” Nyakango says.
The CoB report shows that MPs trot the globe more compared to other state officers, having expended Sh1.5 billion in the six months.
This comprises of Sh914.4 million spent by the National Assembly and another Sh616.9 billion by the Parliamentary Service Commission.
This translates to about Sh500 million more compared to last year when the National Assembly spent Sh510 million and PSC Sh497 million.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry spent Sh1.2 billion on travel outside the country. It spent Sh400 more despite calls for cuts.
President Kenyatta’s office was the other big spender on air travel at Sh111 million compared to Sh53 million it spent the same period in 2018-19.
The Judiciary did considerable travel, costing the taxpayer Sh42 million, but is lower than the Executive and Parliament.
Taxpayers must have therefore saved millions after Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua froze all foreign travel over coronavirus.
The Jubilee administration spent a total of Sh2.4 billion to rent offices despite calls to trim such costs.
The CoB report shows that various government officers incurred another Sh124 billion in unspecified expenses.
The Basic Education Department took the lion’s share at Sh60 billion, which the department says comprised Sh57.4 billion in subsidies towards secondary schools.
It was followed by the Infrastructure Department at Sh29 billion and Interior at Sh11.2 billion.
The National Treasury paid out Sh4.7 billion for the ‘other expenses’ whereas the Public Service used Sh4.3 billion.
The Presidency spent Sh1.7 billion for the same while the National Assembly spent Sh1.3 billion.
CoB reports that the Presidency was the highest spender on hospitality having eaten up Sh957 million during the review period.
Foreign Affairs spent Sh378 million with Treasury gobbling up Sh177 million. Parliament reported about Sh172 million in hospitality expenses.
State agencies spent Sh263 billion on development activities, but recorded a low absorption of funds at 34.5 per cent compared to last year’s 38.8 per cent.
Minority Leader John Mbadi says there is no cause for alarm if the money trickled down to the local hospitality industry.
“The government is the biggest organisation. If it doesn’t spend locally, then sectors like the hotel industry would definitely suffer.”
The Public Service Commission spent Sh92 million on hotel services whereas the Judiciary spent Sh 125 million.
About Sh130 million was spent on legal fees, a tremendous reduction from the Sh437 million spent the other year.
The top ten spenders of recurrent funds are TSC (Sh129 billion), Basic Education (Sh74.8 billion), Defence (Sh53.5 billion), Interior (Sh 49.7 billion), Infrastructure (Sh 30.3 billion), universities (Sh28.9 billion), NIS (Sh18.6 billion), MoH (Sh17 billion), Treasury (Sh16.9 billion) and Planning (Sh10.6 billion).
The budget controller has raised the flag that whereas recurrent expenses continue to soar, development has taken the backstage.
She blamed the Treasury for the low absorption of development funds, citing delays in the release of funds.
Nyakang’o further cited delays in uploading of procurement plans and suspension of capital expenditure by MDAs at the beginning of the financial year.
“COB recommends that the National Treasury should release funds to the MDAs based on their work plans and cash flow projections as presented at the beginning of the financial year.
“In addition, the MDAs should enhance implementation of development projects on timely basis to avoid delays,” the budget boss says.
Edited by Henry Makori