The Jubilee government promised to tackle the fiscal deficit quickly to
reassure the markets and restructure the ballooning debt to ensure the
next generation is not over-burdened.
These promises were constantly highlighted in its annual budget where it
recorded how it would achieve its target through fiscal discipline - a
balance between revenues and expenditure of the government.
All along, Treasury technocrats’ messages have been unmistakable: Tough
choices, sacrifice and austerity. But these seem to only apply to
ordinary Kenyans, not the political elite.
SEE ALSO :Ouko condemns lack of independence from TreasuryGrowing talk of the need to reign in reckless Government spending has always been a top priority, but the reality on the ground has been quite opposite. Barely a week after President Uhuru Kenyatta thwarted a scheme by MPs to bolster their allowances on domestic and foreign travel, a new report flung open the lid on the lawmakers’ love for overseas indulgence. In the financial year ending June 2019, MPs had unashamedly splurged public money on foreign trips, spending more than double their 2017/18 budget on overseas travel, according to a report by outgoing Controller of Budget Agnes Odhiambo. The President’s refusal to assent to the Parliamentary Service Bill, 2019 primarily could save taxpayers’ cash in a big way. Uhuru took issue with clause 20 of the Bill, noting that it bypassed the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), whose chief role is to review any salaries and allowances for public servants. SEE ALSO :CS Yattani urges taxman to foster collaborations
MPs wanted that role vested on their employer, the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) so as to closely control the purse that lined their pockets. Interestingly, PSC had on July 11 vehemently denied the existence of a contentious clause in the Parliamentary Service Bill. “The Bill has a total of 58 clauses and not a single clause or sub-clause in the Bill either touches or relates to members’ salaries or allowances. It is therefore not true that the Bill seeks to increase the members’ salaries and allowances,” said National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi, who also doubles up as the chairman of PSC. The Presidency - comprising of the Head of State and his deputy - were equally guilty of this extravagance in 2018/19, tagging along with them a battery of delegations in most of their foreign trips. But MPs’ love for globe-trotting is fast turning into foibles, a stumbling block to the Government’s latest austerity drive aimed at taming accumulation of debt. SEE ALSO :County splashes Sh4.3m on golden mace
In August this year, 85 lawmakers and their support staff travelled to the US, where National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi and his Senate counterpart Ken Lusaka led the delegation. Parliament’s budget for shuttling around major global cities has increased almost four-fold since June 2014. The amount spent is 12 per cent higher than the annual budget allocation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose key function is to represent Kenya outside its borders. Interestingly, in the 2016/17 financial year, MPs’ expenditure on foreign travel was almost double that of the ministry. The frequent foreign trips, dressed as benchmarking tours, have brought no positive returns to the electorate, according to analysts. SEE ALSO :Act quickly to give counties their revenue, end suffering
“I would believe that an MP who might have travelled, say to the US or Europe, could network for grants to meet their constituents’ needs,” says Scholastica Odhiambo, a senior lecturer at Maseno University. Politicians who rake in millions of shillings by simply winding down the clock in the chambers and others by making technical appearances might prove the biggest damper to Treasury’s fat-trimming exercise. Yet, they are the ones expected to put the brakes on runaway expenditure. So far, as agents of fiscal discipline, the National Assembly has failed spectacularly, according to Churchill Ogutu, a research analyst at Genghis Capital. They have not been able to ensure there is a balanced budget where the country spends only that which it has earned. This has seen the country sink deeper into debt as Treasury seeks to plug the deficit arising from inadequate revenue. However, the MPs’ failure, analysts add, has not been by accident; it has been by design. “As one of the spenders and as the buck of budget affairs stops with them, the National Assembly has misused that prerogative to their benefit and at times usurping the role played by SRC,” says Mr Ogutu. Dr Odhiambo says it is a misnomer for the legislature to call shots on budgetary allocations and approvals. “The role of the legislature is to provide oversight and not to meddle in which money goes where. This is where the conflict of interest is,” she says. “The legislature uses the budgetary allocation and oversight role as a carrot and stick. That is if you do not approve their wanton expenditure or not agree with them on their ‘modus operandi’, then you are punished with less allocation in the next budget.” That is what happened to the Judiciary when MPs felt that the interpreters of the law were sticking their nose into their affairs too much. Last year, Parliament dramatically slashed Judiciary’s allocation for development spending by 86 per cent, leaving it with a paltry Sh500 million, down from the Sh4 billion it had requested for. The Judiciary wanted the money to build more law courts. The budget was finally reinstated, but MPs had flexed their muscle. “If you as a technocrat play ball, you are awarded even more than you had planned,” says Odhiambo, noting that the constitution gives MPs the blindspot to blackmail the Executive to yield to their demands. Last year, Treasury quickly withdrew a proposal to have those earning more than Sh800,000 pay 35 per cent income tax after what analysts said were fears that legislators would ground the budget. But the lawmakers’ penchant for self-aggrandisement has known no limit. Recently, they have been pushing for house allowance in Nairobi even though they have house grants. While a medical scheme for other public officers covers only one spouse, MPs wanted the insurance to include more than one wife. They created a fund that would see them wine and dine at five-star hotels, at taxpayers’ expense. This is because, according to Parliamentary Catering Fund, part of the money for this fund will be appropriated by Parliament. Acting National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani has warned civil servants and Kenyans in general that the belt-tightening that has begun in earnest this year will be painful. However, if history is anything to go by, there are doubts as to whether Kenyan legislators will feel any pain. While Treasury might successfully wean most of the civil servants from spending on items described as not being critical to the survival of ministries - such as training, conferences, tea, travel and advertisement - it will take more than a miracle for MPs to reduce their uptake of these things. With the exception of the Office of the President, official data shows that the wage bill surge for legislators in the National Assembly and Senate from July 2013 to June 2019 has been unmatched. Among their first business when they were elected under the new Constitution in 2013, MPs voted to increase their salaries to Sh851,000, much higher than the Sh532,000 that had been gazetted by SRC. Although they did not succeed, the legislators have been coming up with every manner of changes to increase their wages. They recently won a case against SRC which saw the court reinstate their mileage allowances. This was one of the five allowances that SRC had scrapped in July 2017.
No comments :
Post a Comment