Politics and policy
By EDWIN MUTAI, emutai@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- Treasury's request for additional Sh50 million points to increased domestic travel by President Uhuru Kenyatta in the six months to June next year.
- The money is contained in a mini-budget tabled in Parliament by Majority Leader Aden Duale during a special session last Thursday where Mr Rotich is seeking MPs’ nod for an additional Sh57 billion.
- Mr Kenyatta early in the year issued a directive that required senior officials to cut public spending and save money his government needs to pursue its development agenda.
Treasury secretary Henry Rotich has allocated Sh50
million more to cater for local presidential visits amid calls for
austerity measures.
The request for additional travel budget points to increased
domestic travel by President Uhuru Kenyatta in the six months to June
next year.
The money is contained in a mini-budget tabled in
Parliament by Majority Leader Aden Duale during a special session last
Thursday where Mr Rotich is seeking MPs’ nod for an additional Sh57
billion.
The Controller of Budget says the presidency spent
Sh63.4 million on domestic travel and Sh11.5 million for foreign trips
in the three months to September.
In the year ended June, the presidency – comprising
Mr Kenyatta’s office and that of deputy president William Ruto – spent
Sh371.4 million in domestic travel and Sh187.9 million in foreign
travel.
Mr Kenyatta early in the year issued a directive
that required senior officials to cut public spending and save money his
government needs to pursue its development agenda.
The Jubilee government announced a tight austerity programme to cut spending on non-essential activities.
The programme, which the Controller of Budget says
saved hundreds of millions of shillings, requires public officials to
lease rather than buy vehicles and equipment, cut down on out-of-work
meetings, restrict foreign travels and use technology to reduce
administrative costs.
The spending cut plan deepened with the
announcement that top public officials led by Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto
had offered to take a 20 per cent pay cut, a pledge that is yet to be
implemented.
The government also unveiled a new transport policy
where the Police Service started hiring vehicles instead of buying. But
taxpayers are still spending billions of shillings to cater for state
officials’ locals and foreign travel.
The Controller of Budget says that the national
government and Parliament spent Sh1.3 billion on travel in the three
months to September. Members of Parliament spent a Sh651 million on
local and foreign travel in the period to September.
Another big spenders on foreign trips was the Foreign Affairs ministry which consumed Sh280.7 million.
“The high expenditure on foreign travel by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs is due to trips by diplomatic staff on
foreign assignments in line with the ministry mandate of promoting
foreign relations as well as driving the country’s international
policy,” says the budget office.
No comments :
Post a Comment