- The memo says the recurrent budget utilisation as at February 29, was at 73 percent level of absorption while the operations and maintenance was at 84 percent.
- To mitigate the challenge, the agency boss stated that the Commission will conduct internal budget review to rationalise, reprioritise and assign resources to essential activities and operations.
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The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has rolled out austerity measures to cut spending due to insufficient financial resources.
According to an internal memo seen by the Star dated March 14, 2024, CEO Twalib Mbarak directed staff to adopt austerity measures to mitigate the budget challenges.
"The available financial resources are inadequate to sustain operations of the Commission for the remaining four months of the Financial Year, hence the need to apply austerity measures on budget utilisation," the memo reads in part.
The memo says the recurrent budget utilisation as of February 29, was at 73 percent level of absorption while the operations and maintenance were at 84 percent.
To mitigate the challenge, the agency boss stated that the Commission will conduct an internal budget review to rationalise, reprioritise and assign resources to essential activities and operations.
He added that before the financial position improves, expenditure will be restricted for hospitality, general office supplies, asset maintenance, hire of transport, research, allocation to mortgage and car loans.
Other budget areas to be affected include printing, advertising, domestic travel and subsistence costs, foreign travel and purchase of equipment.
To save on money used during training, EACC will start using office boardrooms to conduct meetings and virtual platforms for training and sensitisation.
"Only crucial training and conferences will be facilitated and pending bills for FY 2022/2023 will be prioritised, departments are instructed to initiate all pending payments to the B2P system," Mbarak said.
On February 5, EACC sat with the National Assembly’s Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs (JLAC) in Naivasha and discussed budget constraints as a major challenge facing the Commission.
Then, Mbarak said there was the need to enhance the anti-graft body's budgetary allocation by Sh702,531,854 to enable it to effectively discharge its mandate.
"We are having a rough time when it comes to our budget. This is not just about the extra funds we are looking for but about the budget already allocated. There are cash flow challenges from the Treasury which are affecting our operations. The exchequer delays are hindering prompt enforcement actions and disruption of corruption matters," he said.
His request was echoed by Chairperson David Oginde who urged the Committee to amend the law to allow EACC to retain part of the money it recovers from corruption.
"This is to address the current budgetary deficits that are adversely affecting the Commission’s capacity to deal with the emerging corruption cases in both national and county governments. Currently, the law requires all monies recovered to be channelled to the Consolidated Fund," Oginde added.