Why corruption and wastage is killing us

Sometimes, bad things make good things happen. In fact, often, things need to get very bad before we take the steps necessary to repair them. The big question is whether we have reached that point with government finance, or whether we will continue limping, untreated, all the way to actual collapse.

To stare at the equation we’ve now reached, it’s clear our nation as a whole has absolutely not grasped the reality of our empty public coffers. The counties want more, the MPs want more, the public servants want more, the public wants more.

Indeed, our president has even started to talk of having no blood to give, and still the message isn’t getting home.

Our public finances are in a very poor place indeed. We’ve been overspending, rather massively, for some several years. We have borrowed twice as much in the last few years as we borrowed in the entire 45 previous years of our nationhood, and still not closed the hole in our budget.

Our loan repayments have shot up, large amounts of our budgeted spend has never been made each year — but left as bills to come out of the next allotted budget — meaning we have got further and further behind in public payments.

Thus, even as our tax take has risen, each new collection has had to cover higher debt costs plus more leftover bills — leaving less and less for current spending.

But that leaves two problems on the table, and one is a great deal more important than the other.
The first, and smaller problem, is how we keep going.

How do we NOT get to the month when we choose between paying public servants’ salaries OR servicing our public debt? Failing in either payment will trigger a crisis, of either public service, or international debt restructuring.

In heading off the actual cash flow breakdown, our government is now visible everywhere, adding new levies, levelling VAT on more goods, pushing at most collection points to collect more — from road fines to tax returns.

But all of these new collections are blighted by the exact same problems as the much bigger collections before them.
Corruption and wastage is killing us.

If our transport police had long been collecting the legitimate transport fines for overlapping, driving on the phone, vehicle safety, speeding and the rest, our collection would be far greater, and our roads far safer. If our procurement officers were getting the best deals for all our public institutions, our public spending would go farther and achieve far more.

If city county staff collected payments to cover their salaries and public services, instead of collecting to their own pocket and then striking when all the money they DON’T return isn’t there for wage rises, we wouldn’t be in this mess
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If the MPs settled for smaller totals; if we stopped paying Sh80,000 payments to ‘important people’ on commissions; and stopped public meetings in grand hotels, when we do have public buildings with meeting rooms and tea flasks — our deficit would start to shrink a lot.