EDITORIAL: Eurobond cash must be used judiciously

Looting and pilferage thrives best where there is no paper trail on cash received and spent. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By EDITORIAL

More by this Author

Summary

• Priority should be given to essential projects and programmes and even so, disbursement of funds should be well documented and tracked to ensure rigour and diligence in our spending of borrowed cash.

That the Auditor-General’s office has continued to produce reports showing that lack of accountability in the management of public funds remains a serious problem should alarm every well-meaning taxpayer.

Public officials appear to be on the lookout for opportunities to pilfer funds meant to execute key programmes and projects.

Hordes of Auditor-General’s reports have painted a picture of hopelessness in tracking how government ministries and agencies spend public funds.

Many of these institutions have been incapable of explaining how they spent funds allocated to them despite strains on the taxpayers.

The arrival of Sh165.3 billion of the Sh202 billion Eurobond proceeds should therefore put the Treasury on the alert as it prepares to disburse the funds.

It is unfortunate that Eurobond’s prospectus has never been officially made public -- denying taxpayers an opportunity to read into the government’s borrowing plans, the spending schedules and how we plan to pay the debt.

This is important to avoid a repeat of the 2015 Eurobond One scenario in which the Treasury failed to show any infrastructure that had been built using the borrowed funds.

READ: Central Bank receives Sh165bn Eurobond cash

Kenyans were told that the Sh196.9 billion net proceeds from the sovereign bond issue and tap sale were lumped together with other government revenue and disbursed to ministries, making it difficult to pinpoint specific projects.

This kind of sloppiness must not be tolerated this time round because doing so would only foment theft and misuse of public funds.

Looting and pilferage thrives best where there is no paper trail on cash received and spent. Using the Eurobond money judiciously should also help the government deal with rising concerns over the rapid build-up of public debt in recent years.

Ultimately, priority should be given to essential projects and programmes and even so, disbursement of funds should be well documented and tracked to ensure rigour and diligence in our spending of borrowed cash.