Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, on Thursday, announced that the government had devised a new way to ensure no money is lost in travel expenditures by officials.
Addressing a Parliamentary sitting during the reading of the budget, the CS explained that they would introduce a credit card for all government officials to use in both foreign and local travels.
This card will track all the expenditures made by the said officials in a bid to control their expenditures.
The CS further announced that the state was going to increase the tax base and expand the revenue.
"With the increasing demand to mobilise resources, There is need to expand the tax base and enhance our revenue. Over the years with the expanded economy, there has been an increase in services that are offered on a commercial basis some of which are not within the armpit of withholding tax.
"I, therefore, propose to expand the scope of application of withholding tax by subjecting additional taxes other than management and a professional fee of withholding tax," he explained.
The services include security, cleaning and fumigation, catering services offered outside the hotel premises, transporting of goods excluding air and sales promotion and marketing among others.
In February, foreign travel expenditure was a major bone of contention between members of parliament and Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma.
MPs asked the CS to cut travel expenditures for the budget to be realised while she argued that the Ksh15.5 million that had been allocated was not enough to carry out operations.
“You cannot prosecute foreign policies from your headquarters because there are things that my ambassadors would do and there are others that I need to do myself; some of the things that are likely to be affected by this under-funding include travel, publishing, conferencing and missions which are seen as non-core,” she explained at the time.
Some MPs, however, countered her with claims that officials from that ministry traveled a lot for missions that could comfortably be carried out in Kenya.
“It has come to a point where you need to look at your budget and see where you can do cuts because this time round, we need to live within our means and show Kenyans that indeed everyone is feeling the pinch,” argued Saboti MP Caleb Amisi.
“Despite the ambitious programs we have, we cannot all get what we want; by giving your ministry what it requested, it may seem like we want you to live lavishly; so please work within the allocated budget and minimize unnecessary travels,” added Mandera North MP Abdullahi Bashir Sheikh.
