Travel, hospitality and training spending cut

Parliament was on Monday told that the budget for non-priority areas had been reduced. PHOTO | FILE 

By GERALD ANDAE, gandae@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Sectors’ budgets reduced by up to 30 per cent as KRA registers below target revenue collection.

Travel, training and hospitality budgets have been cut by up to 30 per cent in measures aimed at reducing expenditure amid underperformance of tax revenue.

Treasury secretary Henry Rotich told Parliament on Monday that the budget for non-priority areas had been reduced.

“There was a cut in non-priority areas such as domestic and foreign travels and hospitality of between 10 to 30 per cent,” said Mr Rotich in a statement.

Spending on domestic and foreign travels was cut by 10 per cent. Public servants spent Sh9.2 billion on travel in the year to June 2014 with local trips accounting for Sh5.4 billion and foreign ones Sh3.8 billion.

Other non-priority areas targeted for budget cuts include information communication and technology (ICT) networks and furniture.

Taxpayers spent Sh3.9 billion on hospitality, conference and catering in the last financial year while Sh2 billion was spent on training.

Government revenue for the first nine months of the year fell short of target by Sh93.8 billion, signalling looming funding difficulties.

The Treasury had targeted revenue and grants of Sh874.5 billion, but realised Sh780.7 billion, leaving a gap of Sh93.8 billion.

The budget for advertising, which was previously allocated to each ministry, has now been centralised within the Ministry of Information.

Digital platforms

The Treasury also reduced the advertising budget severely. Last year the government formed a committee to formulate ways of cutting print advertising expenditure by 50 per cent with the aim of shifting to digital platforms.

The move yielded fruits with the advertising budget dropping to Sh1 billion in the 2013/2014 financial year from Sh2.8 billion in the previous year.

This comes at a time when the president’s office and that of his deputy have overshot their recurrent budget by Sh300 million despite frequent calls for austerity.

Treasury data shows that the two offices had spent Sh3.8 billion as at April 30 against the Sh3.5 billion allocated to them. The Jubilee government early last year announced an austerity programme aimed at cutting spending on non-core activities.

The spending cut plan deepened with the announcement that top public officials, led by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto, had offered to take a 20 per cent pay cut.

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