By George Omondi
In Summary
- Expenditure estimates that the Treasury submitted to Parliament last Thursday shows that NIS has been allocated Sh13.98 billion for the next financial year.
- However, there is no indication as to what portion of the money will go to recurrent or development activities.
The spy agency, the National Intelligence
Service, will once again spend billions of shillings without telling the
taxpayer, even in the broadest terms possible, how the money will be
used.
Expenditure estimates that the Treasury submitted to Parliament last Thursday
shows that the agency, whose budget doubled in the past five years, has
been allocated Sh13.98 billion for the next financial year, but there
is no indication as to what portion of the money will go to recurrent or
development activities.
Next year’s allocation is Sh500 million more than
the current year’s. The agency has not disaggregated its budget,
choosing instead to paste the same line throughout its one-and-a-half
page presentation to Parliament.
There is no indication of the number of employees
nor the purpose for the allocations, making it difficult to establish
how much the spies are paid or the bureaucratic and asset structure of
the agency.
“In 2013/14 Financial Year, the National
Intelligence Service seeks to provide actionable intelligence that adds
value to decision making by the government,” says the introduction to
the agency’s budget.
Last year, an attempt by the parliamentary
committee on defence and foreign relations, then chaired by Adan Keynan,
to lift the veil of secrecy over the agency’s spending came a cropper
after its director-general, Michael Gichangi, declined to appear before
the committee.
Mr Keynan’s committee reacted to the snub by
slashing and reallocating Sh2.7 billion of the spy agent’s budget to
other government functions, but the Budget committee reinstated the
cash, saying the said functions had enough allocations.
The NIS’s budget is expected to fall by Sh145
million in the 2014/2015 financial year —probably reflecting a decline
in threat to national security or completion of capital investment—but
rise to Sh14.3 million the next year.
The paper names the single programme financed as
“maintain and safeguarding of national security”. Programme outcome is
tagged “ensuring continued sovereignty and integrity of the nation is
maintained” stating the output as “intelligence reports”.
In the medium term, performance targets and
indicators are given as “actionable reports”. It will be interesting to
see whether Mr Gichangi shows up to defend his budget in Parliament
either in camera or in public where a US Congress-style interrogation
would happen.
Most of the cash to constitutional commissions and
agencies goes to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the teachers’
employer, which gets 82 per cent of the budget or Sh143.1 billion.
Out of this 99.6 per cent (Sh142.5 billion) will
cover salaries and allowances of the estimated 250,000 teachers,
according to the Budget estimates released last week.
The allocation, if approved by Parliament, will
represent a 4.4 per cent increase over the Sh137 billion that was
allocated to the teachers’ employer in the current financial year.
“We are yet to fully analyse these figures but at a
cursory glance, the Sh6 billion that has been added to this year’s TSC
allocation will definitely not be adequate to finance promotions,
allowances and recruitment of new teachers,” said Wilson Sosion, the
chairman of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut).
By George Omondi
In Summary
- Expenditure estimates that the Treasury submitted to Parliament last Thursday shows that NIS has been allocated Sh13.98 billion for the next financial year.
- However, there is no indication as to what portion of the money will go to recurrent or development activities.
The union has been piling pressure on the
Treasury to set aside Sh15.4 billion to employ some 40,000 teachers for
primary schools and Sh6.5 billion to hire 25,000 others for early
childhood education.
They have also been pushing for housing allowance
for teachers at 50 per cent of basic minimum salary, medical allowance
at 20 per cent and commuter allowance of 10 per cent.
Others are hardship allowance of 30 per cent of
basic salary as well as a further 10 per cent special allowance for
teachers in special needs education.
The Treasury has sought to retain allocation to
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) at Sh1.3 billion, put
allocation to the National Police Service Commission at Sh244 million.
There is, however, a huge discrepancy in the DPP’s
budget. One section of the budget document shows that it has been
allocated Sh2.2 billion while a breakdown of the figures indicates that
it will get only Sh1.26 billion.
Some of the agencies have protested the low level
of funding with EACC saying it only managed to investigate 180 cases of
corruption in the current financial year which ends next month.
Corruption, insecurity and inability of the DPP’s
office to put together water-tight cases are some of the factors that
have contributed to poor perception of Kenya as an investment
destination.
“Crime is becoming more sophisticated and we have
to build capacity both in terms of expertise and number of personnel,”
DPP Keriako Tobiko told the Business Daily in an earlier interview.
Others allocated cash are Independent Policing
Oversight Authority (Sh153.8 million), the National Gender and Equality
Commission (Sh210 million), the Commission on Administration of Justice
(Sh298 million), Controller of Budget (Sh422.8 million), Auditor-General
(Sh500 million) and the Commission for Implementation of the
Constitution (Sh399.4 million).
The Registrar of Political Parties (RPP), the
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and Witness
Protection Agency have been allocated Sh344.7 million, Sh3.8 billion and
Sh196.8 million respectively.
The financing of RPP and IEBC are specifically set
to come under the spotlight as disputes arise among members of various
political coalitions in the National Assembly and Senate as well as
during by-elections that may result from petitions in courts.
The Commission on Revenue Allocation will have to
do with Sh321.4 million in the next financial year, the Kenya National
Commission on Human Rights Sh253.2 million, the Public Service
Commission Sh770.6 million and Salaries and Remuneration Commission
Sh375.4 million.
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